Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton stated on September 30 that super intelligence is a national security issue. He compared the current development race to the nuclear arms race and urged US companies to continue research without pausing.
Clayton was confirmed as DNI by a 51-47 Senate vote on July 28 and sworn in on August 3. His remarks followed a White House summit on September 29, where President Trump met with Sundar Pichai of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, and Elon Musk of xAI.
The summit resulted in a voluntary agreement titled the Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities. It outlines four layers of internal and external controls for frontier models but lacks binding enforcement mechanisms.
President Trump issued an executive order during the summit to replace the term artificial intelligence with super intelligence in all government communications. Clayton previously served as SEC chairman and US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
