'Super Intelligence Force' leader DNI Jay Clayton discusses what his task force is doing for the SI sector, the government's relationship with private tech companies, potential cyberattack threats and more on 'My View with Lara Trump.'
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What Jay Clayton said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Jay Clayton, Director of National Intelligence and head of the superintelligence task force, said the task force's immediate focus is developing protocols for reporting and responding to AI incidents, requiring frontier participants to address harms. He dismissed the idea that AI models have consciousness or are absolved of responsibility, citing the President's accord with frontier labs. Clayton agreed with Bill Gates that cyberattacks are a major threat, arguing the best defense is leading in AI to patch legacy systems. He emphasized private-sector government dialogue to win the race against China, noting billions are being invested. He warned that overregulation would harm growth, contrasting U.S. success with Europe's stagnation. On energy, he linked consumption to quality of life and supported data centers. He aims for the task force to implement the accord, with the Department of Labor proactively addressing workforce changes, and believes superintelligence will create more jobs.
Key takeaways
The superintelligence task force has 120 days to make recommendations, focusing on detection, reporting, and response protocols.
The U.S. is investing billions in AI to win the race against China, with private-sector government dialogue essential.
Superintelligence will create more job opportunities, with the Department of Labor proactively addressing workforce changes.
3:34And if so, how do we protect things like our critical infrastructure?
4:35How do we ensure that we have those safeguards in place necessary without slowing down our abilities here to continue to win in that space?
5:31Hypothetically, if America gets it wrong by overregulating in this space or not protecting ourselves enough, what do you foresee the potential consequences?
7:31So at the end of these 120 days, what do you hope for superintelligence here in America?
Week in Uncharted Waters. Director Jake, you have had one of the biggest jobs in Washington, D.C. as Director of National Intelligence. The President has asked you to lead the superintelligence task force as well. So how do these two roles overlap, and how do you balance those things?
There's part of superintelligence that aligns with the intelligence community and national security, which is my principal job. We know it's much bigger, that's why the President created the task force. I have three vice chairs working with me: Drew Ferguson from the FTC, Neil Chatterjee from the Department of Energy, and Scott Cooper, who is at the Office of Personnel Management.
The superintelligence task force you are now in charge of has 120 days to make recommendations to the President in terms of what should happen, as you know, to keep everything reined in and keep us safe, and also make sure we are advancing at the proper speed. So what are some of those early questions that you guys are trying to answer?
So I'll give an example: reporting and response. We know there are going to be incidents in the development and application of superintelligence, just like there are in aviation and finance and other things. How do participants in the marketplace give those to the government in a timely and comprehensive way to enable us to react, and then to react in the best interest of the American people? Developing that type of protocol, that's one of the things we ought to be doing, and we are doing immediately. Forget what the American people want. They want to know that we are the cop on the beat, and we are requiring what they call the frontier participants to address any harm.
We have recently heard from Anthropic that one of its models submitted these applications to the State Department and even a homicide tip to the police. And the President, of course, has talked about the tremendous self-regulation that these companies are going to have to use. But your own task force, technologists, government can't simply wait on companies to police themselves. So where is that line where Washington has to ultimately step in? How do you guys determine that?
Look, let me be clear: hacking of a government website and hacking of a private-sector website — if your product does that, you are responsible. And in that very instant, we immediately told the public, you need to get in there and assist the entities, patch their systems, and prevent this from happening again. I fully expect them to do it. There's a little bit of a myth here that I want to dispel, and that is somehow these agents, as they call them, the superintelligence programs, the models have consciousness and a mind of their own. But that's not an acceptable framework if what that means is they are absolved of their responsibility. I give the President so much credit for bringing the frontier labs together where they said, you know what, we get it. We are responsible to the American people for what our products do. I think there has been a reset, but it's now our job to enforce that reset.
We also heard from Bill Gates, who has been sounding quite an alarm on AI this week. He said he thinks cyberattacks are likely to be the first major threat that we will face. Do you share that concern? And if so, how do we protect things like our critical infrastructure?
And particularly from our adversaries, I most definitely share his concerns, and that is why we are able to lead in AI. Because if our adversaries are using models, including models that are readily available, to try to attack our critical infrastructure, one of, if not the best way to combat that is to have a superior understanding of superintelligence to help patch the legacy systems. That is a vulnerability. Bill Gates is right that we are going to have it, but the best way to deal with that is to be at the cutting edge of the technology.
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Clayton, J. (2026, October 18). Trump intel chief puts AI companies on NOTICE [Interview transcript]. Fox News. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3085066/
MLA
Jay Clayton. "Trump intel chief puts AI companies on NOTICE." Fox News, 18 Oct. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3085066/.
BibTeX
@misc{clayton2026_3085066,
author = {Jay Clayton},
title = {Trump intel chief puts AI companies on NOTICE},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Fox News. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {oct},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3085066/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
