Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Trump's new AI czar and task force announcement sends advisors 'scrambling'

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Trump's new AI czar and task force announcement sends advisors 'scrambling' · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: President Trump announced he will appoint an artificial intelligence czar
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: to overlook the administration's response to the fastly developing technology.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: In a social media post, the president promised not to, quote,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: hinder or stifle the growth of this incredible industry, but
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: instead be looking for bad. And we can do that
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: very easily with our already existing criminal and civil justice system.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: The Saturday statement also noted the president intends to create
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: an AI task force through, though the president did not
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: offer much explanation on how the body would work or
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: what authority it would have. The move comes as the
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: White House faces growing backlash from critics and even AI
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: companies themselves for its slow response to regulating the technology.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Joining us now, tech policy reporter for Axios, Maria Curry. Maria,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: So what has the response been like to President Trump's
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: AI force news? Because, as you know, the president was
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: at first very resistant to doing anything on AI, calling
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: it a hoax just a week ago, despite industry leader warnings.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: So is this seen as a step in the direction
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of actual regulation?
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  Speaker 2: So this was one of another one of the president's
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  Speaker 2: announcements made over the weekend on social media that has
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  Speaker 2: really left his advisers in the inside of the administration
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  Speaker 2: and the outside scrambling to figure out what it's actually
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: going to mean and who could potentially take on this
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  Speaker 2: new role as a czar. In terms of whether or
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  Speaker 2: not this actually satisfies industry demands, I think it is
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: very much an open question. It depends on what this
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: government body will actually do, where it is housed, what
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: authorities it will have. And in terms of who might
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: actually become the new A.I. czar, we know that the
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: former person who held that position, David Sachs, was a
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Silicon Valley businessman. player with messaging chops, which is another
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: potential purpose of this of these series of announcements, you know,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: really rebranding artificial intelligence away from the doomer language that
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: the president has been chalking up to a hoax and
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: making it a more palatable idea for the American public.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: You know, even trying to rename artificial intelligence itself and
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: holding a poll on social media to see if it
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: should be named something new. Right.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I think one of the ones he was proposing was
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: supreme intelligence instead of artificial intelligence. I want to ask
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  Speaker 1: you about your latest reporting, because you report that California
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Governor Gavin Newsom's executive order on artificial intelligence, which proposes,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: I think, an AI kill switch. First, what is an
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: AI kill switch? And do you think that more potential
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: 2028 candidates are going to be focused on AI?
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  Speaker 2: Right. So we're really seeing this juxtaposition, whereas Washington is
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: not stepping into the regulatory vote that void that a
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: lot of these Democratic policymakers and candidates see. They're stepping
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: into this. And it's not just, you know, Gavin Newsom, his.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Kill switch idea essentially just means, you know, allowing the
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: companies to have the ability to shut down their own
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  Speaker 2: models when risk reaches a certain threshold. This is actually
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  Speaker 2: an idea that is already aligned with some industry players
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: and much of California's regulatory approach already is one that
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: major players such as OpenAI are behind and trying to
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: export to the rest of the country. And so, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Gavin Newsom is really towing that line there where he
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  Speaker 2: is positioning himself as stepping in where Washington is seemingly failing.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: but also maintaining relations with the industry. Other governors did
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  Speaker 2: the same in the aftermath of this AI alarm, including J.B. Pritzker,
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  Speaker 2: who is also a 2028 contender. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is
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  Speaker 2: also coming out with a new position that is more
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: focused on the actual economic impacts of AI itself, how
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: the economy being potentially propped up by seven companies could
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: end up impacting people's retirements and their life savings.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Maria, the president is expected to talk a lot about
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  Speaker 1: AI this week, whether it's at the United Nations General
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Assembly or with Chinese President Xi Jinping when he visits
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: the White House on Thursday. Do you think that there's
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: going to be any concrete actions taken out of the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: meetings this week, any kind of agreement to disarm in
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: this arms race?
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Well, it's interesting because you have the administration and the
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: president in particular calling this a hoax. But we have
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: also seen even over the weekend during Treasury Secretary Scott
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Besson's discussions with his Chinese counterparts that some steps are
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: being taken in the direction of these industry demands, including
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: more collaboration with China on safety concerns. This new U.S.-China
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: AI dialogue is going to continue. More meetings are going
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: to happen. And they now have this mechanism or they're
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: building this mechanism for incidents. What I'm expecting out of
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: the state dinner later this week is maybe less discussion
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: on the technical level and concrete action and more of
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: a messaging sign that is a continuation of what Treasury
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Scott Besson has already laid the groundwork on of U.S.-China
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: collaboration at the highest risk level.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Mm hmm. But I think people are going to be
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: looking for actual action. So we'll see if any really
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: comes out of these meetings this week. Tech policy reporter
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: for Axios, Maria Curry. Thank you.
• 5:30
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