The White House has officially launched its ‘Super Intelligence Force’—a taskforce so committed to understanding artificial intelligence that it appointed a national intelligence chief to lead it. Because nothing says ‘we grasp cutting-edge machine learning’ like putting someone whose job is traditionally about spies in charge of algorithmic policy.
The move comes as concerns about AI governance intensify across tech, academia, and finance. Presumably, the administration looked at the complexity of modern neural networks, the stakes of algorithmic bias, and the speed of AI development—and decided the solution was a committee led by someone whose last briefing on technology probably involved a PowerPoint presentation and a floppy disk.
The taskforce’s mandate remains delightfully vague: oversee AI policy while the nation’s most powerful companies train models on datasets the size of small countries and deployment decisions happen faster than government meetings can be scheduled. Early reports suggest the group is considering a regulatory framework that will definitely be relevant by 2028, which is only three years after the technology in question has already reshaped half the economy.
Experts in AI safety and policy are reportedly ‘cautiously optimistic,’ which is bureaucratic shorthand for ‘we have given up hope but are too polite to say so out loud.’ The taskforce’s first meeting is scheduled for sometime next quarter—assuming they can figure out how to book a room and send calendar invites without accidentally delegating it to an AI that will schedule the meeting for 3 a.m. in 2047.
At least we can rest assured that America’s most pressing technological challenge is now in extremely capable hands.