The White House’s new AI task force has formally adopted its charter, starting a 120-day deadline to develop recommendations on how the government should respond to the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence. The announcement was first shared with Semafor.
Who will evaluate the risks?
At its first official meeting on Thursday, the task force voted to commission a report from the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST) to assess AI risk in three specific areas:
- cybersecurity and protection of critical infrastructure,
- biosecurity and dual-use applications,
- model control and accountability.
A White House official said the task force will engage with frontier model developers and other Super Intelligence (SI) companies, consumer protection groups, civil liberties advocates, industry stakeholders, and federal and state law enforcement agencies to inform and implement its work. “The [Super Intelligence Force] stands ready to ensure implementation of the Accord and continued U.S. leadership on SI for the benefit of the American people,” the statement added.
Working groups and leadership responsibilities
The task force also agreed to form a working group to implement the White House Accord on Super Intelligence that major AI CEOs signed earlier this month. That effort will be led by the task force chair, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, together with National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross.
Defense Undersecretary Emil Michael, a vice chair of the task force, will lead development of protocols for laboratories to notify the government about breaches, hacks, and other cyber incidents. Michael will also serve as the primary liaison with frontier AI labs and coordinate long-term AI policy across government agencies.
The group will create a “law enforcement and consumer protection coordination committee” including the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson, another vice chair of the task force, will lead that committee. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, the third vice chair, will work with public and private sector partners on critical infrastructure protection and with the Department of Labor to study AI’s impacts on the U.S. workforce and economy.
Membership
In addition to the chairs and vice chairs, task force members include: Vice President JD Vance; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios; Sean Cairncross; Chris Klomp (nominee for the No. 2 position at the Department of Health and Human Services); Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano; National Security Agency Director Joshua Rudd; White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles; and her deputy, Richard Walters.
Enforcement and legal questions remain
The announcement does not fully specify how compliance with the task force’s recommendations would be enforced or how existing law would apply to companies that fail to follow new protocols. A White House official told Semafor that one possible enforcement tool could be export controls. The Commerce Department previously imposed temporary export restrictions on Anthropic after the company declined to provide the government unfettered access to its models.
The task force now has 120 days to produce a report and proposals for concrete measures the government could take to address the risks posed by advanced AI systems.
