Company's pre-IPO day are now discussing a $1.5 trillion valuation, down from the previously expected $2 trillion.
The White House, the White House new superintelligence task force, has officially kicked off its 120-day countdown to tackle critical tech and infrastructure risks. Joining us now with details of the meeting, Jay Clayton, Director of National Intelligence. He chairs the superintelligence force. Good morning. Can I still call you Jay? I just don't feel...
I think let's go with Jay.
It's that all right, all right, all right, Jay. And you can call me Mr. Kernen. No, I'm kidding. You call me Joe as well. What happened in the inaugural meeting, David? How would you summarize it?
It was a very good meeting, and it really was a continuation of the historic day we had here at the White House at the end of last month, where President Trump brought together the world's leading companies to sign an accord and agree on behalf of the American people that they had responsibility for the products they were producing. And following on from that, let me highlight four actions we took at the initial meeting of the superintelligence force. First of all, we set out a protocol and a path for making sure that those accords are implemented and that we're in dialogue with the frontier labs.
Second, we tasked the PCAST, led by David Sacks, with doing a risk study drawing on some of the best minds we have here in America, including Nobel laureates. Third, we established three committees, each one led by a vice chair. Emile Michael's going to lead a committee on reporting and response, making sure that we have a reporting and response mechanism for superintelligence issues. Scott Cooper, Vice Chair Cooper, is going to lead a committee, task force, whatever you want to call it, on assessing critical infrastructure and working with the private sector and our state and local governments to try to harden and set out paths for hardening our critical infrastructure.
And then Andrew Ferguson, our really great FTC chairman who has led, I would say, the fight against fraud across the government, is going to bring together a committee on law enforcement and responsibility, assuring the American people that we do have the tools to ensure their safety, that the DOJ, the FTC, the FCC, all working together, have tools at their disposal to deal with the risks. And what I would say is provide sufficient deterrence so that that responsibility is enforced.
Well, I'm glad you got a lot of people in both in this arena and in your other job, which seems a little bit daunting at this time in our country as well, Jay.
So yeah, well, let me highlight one other thing that we did. And that is, and I applaud the Department of Labor here, Keith Sonderling, they've been on this for some time, and we set a channel in place with them for regular reporting on the impacts of superintelligence on the workforce and our economy going forward. We do believe that superintelligence will enhance the American worker, will make more opportunities for the American worker. But this is something that the American people want us to focus on and report to them on.
I mean, there's so many possible benefits and so many possible concerns to worry about. I'm wondering, like I said, you do have people to help, but you mentioned it. I mean, the displacement of workers, the... I was thinking your SEC commissioner, how valuable and how much of one of the main legs of this bull market is AI. I mean, it matters what's happening with AI bonds. It matters what's happening with what Kevin Warsh does. I mean, this is an integral part of the economy right now. I mean, is that a risk you have to assess?
Well, it's a reality, Joe. It's got risks and opportunities, but it's a reality. I think one of the great things about having open markets, free markets, is that they tell us a lot. And what the market is telling us right now is that the speed and breadth of impact of superintelligence on the global economy, and frankly on our global way of life, is going to be dramatic. And you're right, we have to face that in a clear-eyed way and deal with it. And let me make sure that the American people understand something. We've talked about the U.S. labs, incredibly important that we lead in this technology. And let me tell you why. We're not the only ones developing it. There are vectors in this technology that are coming from some of our known adversaries and competitors: the Chinese, the Russians, the Iranians, the North Koreans, all have significant technical capability. We need to stay ahead of them. There also are what we call open-source models, models that are released out into, let's just call it, the digital atmosphere, that various people, not just governments, can use and can use for very good purposes, but could also use for nefarious purposes. And it's so important that we stay on the cutting edge in terms of what I would say is capabilities and compute in order to deal with those various vectors. Joe.
I wonder how you get rid of all the noise, Jay, and find out what people really think. For example, you know, David Sachs, when he was sort of minimizing some of the comments of Dario or some of the doomer-type comments, it was ascribed to him having a skin in the game for whatever reason. Dario has skin in the game because he's worried about liability. Everybody seems to, you know, when Jensen says, I don't believe any of the real most dire forecasts, well, he, you know, he's selling chips to everyone. Everyone supposedly has, you know, a dog in the race. We've been talking a lot about dogs today, but how do you sift through all that and really get to the core? Is it an existential threat? Is it already doing recursive self-improvement? Can it escape? Are all these things... Did you talk about those yesterday? Can the technology itself advance so quickly that you have Palantir-type companies that can provide what we're worried about, that can deal with that, that can see it coming and deal with it?
Like I said, Joe, these are things that were discussed. Let me break down what you just asked me. You hear various views. The superintelligence force, one of its roles, is to be a focal point for hearing all of these views, not just from industry experts like you mentioned, but also from the American people. We are hearing from industry experts about the risks. Many of the risks are centered around cybersecurity. And what I would say is our digital infrastructure, our digital infrastructure is actually our critical infrastructure. It goes to all of the public goods that you see: water, electric, and including things like national defense and our ability to communicate and project power around the world. Those are all cybersecurity risks. They've been cybersecurity risks for the past decade. Superintelligence amplifies those. And it's why we're focused on hardening those systems and using what I would say, our lead and our commitment to continue to lead, to stay ahead of those nefarious actors. Joe.
Hey, Jay, Axios is reporting that the FTC has subpoenaed OpenAI and Anthropic, and they're looking into potential consumer protection violations. We've talked about this in the past. Will the FTC vigorously enforce any potential wrongdoing that they find? And would it be something that would actually prevent the release of new models if the FTC investigation finds that there's been some bad practices here?
The short answer to your question, Becky, is yes, absolutely. We've heard from the American people. The American people want us to use our tools, our law enforcement tools, our regulatory tools to ensure their safety. If there are unfair practices that would fall under the FTC, if there are, frankly, violations of criminal law that would fall under the DOJ, we are going to enforce them vigorously. President Trump has instructed that they be enforced vigorously, and we think that's what the American people want. And that is not at all inconsistent with leading. You have to lead and lead responsibly.
