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Tech Industry Scratches Its Head Over Trump's 'AI Force' Proposal (politico.com) 174

Posted by EditorDavid from the government-inaction dept.
Saturday morning President Trump announced he's creating an AI task force and appointing an AI czar, reports Politico.

"I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS," Trump wrote Saturday in what Politico earlier described as "a lengthy Truth Social post on Saturday morning." TRUMP: Over the years, there have been many Hoaxes, all generated by the Radical Left Dumocrats, for purposes of destroying our Country. RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, Global Warming, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2 [...] and now, the decimation, or destruction, of AI, commonly known as Artificial Intelligence — And I, as President of the United States, will not stand by and let this happen.

It all began with an attack on our Data Centers, until people realized how wealthy and prestigious they were for the Communities in which they were built. Higher Salaries, Lower Taxes, and Safer Streets, was the result, and the crazed Data Center attack has largely failed, so now [...] they are going straight at AI. We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry. Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!

However, we will also be looking for BAD, and we can do that, very easily, with our already existing Criminal and Civil Justice System. For this purpose, I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS, in my First Term. To that end, I will be announcing, in the near future, the AI "Czar" — Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!
Trump concluded by saying AI "is the next Industrial Revolution, or Internet, but will be even larger and more impactful... We are leading China, and the rest of the World, and I intend to keep it that way!" But what exactly is AI Force? "The White House did not immediately respond to a request to clarify whether the agency would be military or civilian," notes the Washington Post. So now "The tech industry is struggling to make sense of President Donald Trump's surprise announcement," Politico reported Saturday afternoon: Four representatives for the sector, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told POLITICO that the industry was not widely informed of Trump's decision prior to the Truth Social post. "Nobody knows what the idea even is," one of the people said. Another said that feedback on the idea was not widely solicited within the industry. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment...

"I think that he clearly feels pressure to say something, but he's torn because he's just spent the last few days saying that the whole thing is a hoax," Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the progressive tech industry coalition Chamber of Progress, said of Trump and his prior dismissal of AI doomsday scenarios. Since the departure of David Sacks, who stepped down as the Trump administration's previous AI czar earlier this year, the White House has been "making up AI policy as it goes," Kovacevich added. "I think it's clear they've really missed the presence of an organized leader like David Sacks was."

One of the tech industry representatives said they were confused about whether the task force would be charged with formulating more AI regulations or recommending policies that would further stimulate the tech's development. Taylor Barkley, director of federal government affairs at the industry-aligned Abundance Institute, is eyeing it as a way to solidify a light-touch government approach to the technology he says will foster innovation. "Any AI Force or AI Czar should have one job: keep the field open so entrepreneurs at every scale can compete, free from onerous regulation," he told POLITICO. "Existing criminal and civil law can handle bad actors. New permission regimes will stifle the very activity America needs most."
It's worth noting that the day before, California's governor made an announcement. "With Donald Trump and Congress asleep at the wheel, Governor Gavin Newsom is once again taking the lead to strengthen AI safety for all Americans," the governor's office announced Friday. Newsom issued a strong executive order convening experts to help California create new AI safety laws and reporting rules, possibly even requiring safety auditors embedded in labs and emergency "kill switches" in frontier models.

Tech Industry Scratches Its Head Over Trump's 'AI Force' Proposal More | Reply

Tech Industry Scratches Its Head Over Trump's 'AI Force' Proposal

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  • Seriously... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mingleby ( 6527654 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @03:14AM (#66344284)
    ... if ANYONE still supports or backs this clown, you are nothing more than a morally-bankrupt chumps - and that's being kind!

    • Re:Seriously... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @03:34AM (#66344296) Journal

      There are a few idiots here who still seem to like trump. I note that they all stay away from stories about him doing the more randomly stupid things, because those they can't defend whereas everything else can be blamed on Obama, burden or Hillary or some sort of 1D connect 4 or whatever game they think he's playing.

      I'm other words they do actually know, but they just hope the right people will get hurt anyway.

      • Re:Seriously... (Score:4)

        by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @05:17AM (#66344354)

        I'm other words they do actually know, but they just hope the right people will get hurt anyway.

        Which makes them evil. Not much of a surprise. The human race only works if most agree on basic things, otherwise everything dissolves into chaos. Obviously, evil people like chaos, but they are also enemies of anybody not evil.

        • Not just evil people. Stupid/slow people also like chaos because it makes other people as confused as they are. Suddenly they can compete.

        • I'm other words they do actually know, but they just hope the right people will get hurt anyway.

          Which makes them evil. Not much of a surprise. The human race only works if most agree on basic things, otherwise everything dissolves into chaos. Obviously, evil people like chaos, but they are also enemies of anybody not evil.

          People support a given party in part because of the policies they may have announced, but also largely because of what we might loosely term "tribal allegiance" - i.e. Their family has always voted that way, or their church or community has always voted that way.

          This means that uprooting and voting for a different party can be quite an upheaval. Even someone who sufficiently able to logically deduce the moral problems with the Trump administration, is likely to put those thoughts aside rather than risk the

      • everything else can be blamed on Obama, burden or Hillary

        The rare autocorrect Freudian slip.

    • Re:Seriously... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Fons_de_spons ( 1311177 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @04:10AM (#66344308)
      I noticed that some people back Trump just to annoy us. To break the system. Whatever you do, do not put energy in those types.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Ah, yes, the defectives that crave negative attention. Basically psychiatric cases.

        • They don't have to be psychotic. The defectives like chaos because it makes everyone more ineffective like they are.

      • I noticed that some people back Trump just to annoy us. To break the system. Whatever you do, do not put energy in those types.

        Disagree. We should be putting energy into those people. Preferably kinetic energy.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I noticed that some people back Trump just to annoy us. To break the system. Whatever you do, do not put energy in those types.

        In short: do not feed the trolls.

        Old internet advice. Still good advice.

      • We do not back Trump to annoy you. Frankly we do not think about you much at all. Trump is doing what we hired him to do: close the border, secure our interests overseas, end the racism of DEI. I can like with his circus personality because he just gets so much done.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      There are always some no-insight, no-morals idiots that back any kind of kakistocracy. I mean even with all the catastrophes Trump has now created due to sheer incompetence and extreme arrogance, he has supporters. I cannot even imagine how deranged and, yes, evil, these people are.

      On the plus-side, an "AI force" can be used to start a war with China! Oh, and look, that nearly already happened.

    • Re:Seriously... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Cyberpunk Reality ( 4231325 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @06:39AM (#66344440)

      Insane dictator is insane, says (and does) insane stuff.

      The judges who aid and abet him, the Congress that fails to remove him, they're the bigger traitors here. Trump belongs in a managed care facility. They belong in prison. (And the "impeachment is not a priority" Democratic leadership aren't much better.)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      What is wrong with the Republican party? In any functioning democracy, his own party would have removed him long ago.
      I know thats not so easy in the US, but you have section 4. Its not like they'd lose power, and how bad can Vance be?

      • Re:Seriously... (Score:4, Informative)

        by Arrogant-Bastard ( 141720 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @07:53AM (#66344502)
        "What is wrong with the Republican party?"

        There is no Republican party. Not any more. It's been replaced with a death cult. (If you think that's an exaggeration, then I invite to pull up every piece of GOP-initiated legislation in Congress for the last quarter century and consider its goal(s). You will find that -- with precious few exceptions -- all of it is intended to kill as many people as possible. Whether it's cutting funding for anti-hunger programs, or for medical care, or for housing, or gutting environmental regulations so that industry can destroyer the planet faster, almost every piece of legislation is explicitly designed as an instrument of mass murder.)

        Barry Goldwater - who I sharply disagreed with but have to admit was usually rational - saw this coming over half a century ago: "Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them."

        These people are of course completely insane: but they're insane people who wield enormous power. They believe that they're bringing about the "End Times" and that doing so justifies anything/everything they do, no matter how vicious and inhumane. And so they're doing everything possible to bring about not merely the end of the US, but the end of humanity -- including their own children.

        There's no reasoning with these people. They're impervious to it. There's no appealing to conscience or ethics or morality; they're convinced that they're doing the will of god and that doing so justifies anything. The only thing left is stopping them by any means necessary, and the only question left is how long and how far we're going to allow things to go before we finally do the things we need to do.

    • It takes a while to deprogram people. Covid didn't help anything with no one to blame for being stuck inside. For doom scrolling and coming across all the various armchair experts in whatever they spewed as long as their ad rev was increasing. Trumps whole message is it's never you it's always someone else's fault. The guy had done nothing but spend his life suing and being sued (blame game). Many will still follow him otherwise they will have to claim fault. The whole blaming the left or right is so f-ing

  • I could not tell if I was reading an edict or a parody.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      You are reading history in the making. The kind that is later used to explain how to NOT do things...

    • Whatever it was, brainless adoption of the so-called "AI" has some real consequences [cnn.com], which at times can get to level "fairly dangerous".

      Imagine for a moment an AI system that's running on pure ethanol and rainwater... The consequences would never be the same11!!!!

      • Dr. Strangelove was playing on Tubi linear last night: "pure grain alcohol and rainwater". Meanwhile our Czar of War does seem to be recently obsessed with precious bodily fluids.

  • Bonhoeffer saw this through clear eyes (Score:5, Interesting)

    by shilly ( 142940 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @03:21AM (#66344290)

    All those years ago:
    “ ‘Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this thestupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily
    irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.”

    https://www.onthewing.org/user... [onthewing.org]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Sadly, his insights have aged well.

    • Which is this, though? Sure, the man on the street who thinks Biden controls gas prices while Trump is president is stupid, but what do we call the person who still supports Trump, but *isn't* stupid? They're smart people, but they support this craziness. Is it fascist? Is it evil? What's the correct term for this?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        but what do we call the person who still supports Trump, but *isn't* stupid? They're smart people, but they support this craziness. Is it fascist? Is it evil? What's the correct term for this?

        Try "ignorant". They can be smart people, but ignorant in refusing to see the truth.

        It's why a common phrase now is "Have the day you voted for". When you see these Trump supporters complain about high gas or diesel prices, you say "you voted for it, what are you complaining about?" All the information was there for yo

  • Other new military branches⦠(Score:5, Funny)

    by TrueJim ( 107565 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @03:28AM (#66344294) Homepage

    Other new military branches being proposed by the administration include Diesel Force, Tariff Force, and Iran Force. Notable absent from the proposal: Epstein Force.

  • Sadly that old man is somehow President of the United States, which speaks ill both of the country and humankind in generals claim to be an "intelligent" species.

    • This really is the dumbest timeline (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @04:34AM (#66344318) Homepage

      The worst part is, we knew this and still somehow collectively thought it was a good idea to send this man back to The White House for a second fucking time.

      Where I live, we've got these Muscovy ducks near the entrance to my neighborhood that have a tendency to sleep in the road at night. It's not for want of a grassy area to roost in - there's plenty of that. Nope, these ducks just decide that the best place to plop their fat feathery asses down for a snooze, during the time when they're the hardest for passing motorists to see, is right in the middle of the street. As you might imagine, they regularly do get accidentally run over. You'd assume that might send a message to the remaining ducks that their chosen place to sleep is less than ideal, but they're entirely unfazed as to why their comrades sometimes wake up dead in a mess of duck guts and feathers the next morning.

      America's voters are like those ducks.

      • Where I live, we've got these Muscovy ducks near the entrance to my neighborhood that have a tendency to sleep in the road at night. It's not for want of a grassy area to roost in - there's plenty of that. Nope, these ducks just decide that the best place to plop their fat feathery asses down for a snooze, during the time when they're the hardest for passing motorists to see, is right in the middle of the street. As you might imagine, they regularly do get accidentally run over. You'd assume that might send a message to the remaining ducks that their chosen place to sleep is less than ideal, but they're entirely unfazed as to why their comrades sometimes wake up dead in a mess of duck guts and feathers the next morning.

        Those ducks, who somehow think it's okay to sleep on roads, will become extinct eventually, due to Darwinian selection.

        I do not at all wish for the same dire consequences for the MAGA crowd, but I hope they will become extinct nonetheless, due to attrition.

  • ...if AI has taken control of the White House, or if things could go better with AI controlling it. Where are we now ?!?

    • Actually, AI hallucinations could explain a lot of the random stuff we hear being spewed by the president.

      • I think I saw somewhere he uses AI. I'd always assumed he used it to stroke his narcosis. From what little I've seen about AI, it does stroke the user incessantly.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Well, wuth the recently nearly done act of war against China, I think LLM-type AI is quite capable of doing even worse.

  • Only High I.Q. individuals need apply (Score:4, Funny)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @03:50AM (#66344306)

    To be fair, you only need a room temperature level of IQ to be smarter than literally anyone in the current administration so that isn't a very high bar to clear. I'm sure Trump will promote his Mar-a-Largo janitor to AI Czar if he pledges to give Trump a daily hand job.

    Wait... no that poor guy is probably in an ICE detention camp.

  • Tech Industry Scratches Its Head Over Trump's 'AI Force' Proposal

    (/s) Yes, it takes a while before they understand what Trump proposed. He is playing another round of 78 dimensional chess. Now their brain needs to work through it. They actually may never grasp it.

    • Tech Industry Scratches Its Head Over Trump's 'AI Force' Proposal

      (/s) Yes, it takes a while before they understand what Trump proposed. He is playing another round of 78 dimensional chess. Now their brain needs to work through it. They actually may never grasp it.

      I don't think even AI could grasp what he's proposing. I'm not even sure he does. What exactly is this AI force going to fight against, other than legislative constraints against the development of AI? By appearance, this is another branch of the military. What will it protect?

      [You forgot the /s tag, but well-played.]

  • Were his posts always like this? I've only paid attention to him from last year.

    But the language, grammar and the fascinating use of exclamation marks and capital letters remind me of the good old Nigerian 419 scammers.

    • Covfefe

    • Re:He writes like a Nigerian scammer (Score:4, Informative)

      by Arrogant-Bastard ( 141720 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @08:55AM (#66344552)
      "Were his posts always like this?"

      It appears to me that this is a serious question, so I'm going to give a serious answer: yes.

      This is how he's always written (and spoken), although arguably it's gotten worse in the past few years as his dementia progresses. The press -- right, left, and center -- has unfortunately whitewashed much of this by often not quoting him unredacted or by paraphrasing what he's written/said in order to make it intelligible. If you actually listen to him, word for word, and read him, word for word, it's obvious in minutes that he's not only an incredibly stupid and uneducated man, but that what's left of his mind is deteriorating rapidly.

      Keep in mind that Trump was born into an organized crime family, was raised to be a mobster, and built his entire "career" on fraud. At every point it was always about him and only about him: he doesn't care about anyone or anything else. He was able to conceal that -- to a certain extent -- for a long time, but now that he's losing his mind, the mask is off. He's been reduced to a toddler, who only wants ME ME ME. Except in this case, he's willing to destroy the US in order to get it, and US adversaries have quite adeptly leveraged that. Both the Iranians and North Koreans have made him their dancing puppet, for example.

      So to circle back to your question and answer it another way: he writes like a scammer because he is a scammer.

    • He's talked gibberish since 2015 and millions of people stood up and cheered after listening to this:

      "Look, having nuclear — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart — you know, if you're a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I'm one of the smartest people anywhere in the world — it'

  • which rules Trump himself it, I guess. How does he define "high I.Q." anyway?

  • The US is cooked (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rumagent ( 86695 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @05:36AM (#66344384)
    Electing this orange embarrassment not once, but twice. Threatening long time allies all over the world, rim jobbing dictators everywhere and losing wars to 3rd rate countries. FFS.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      The U.S. has no allies as we recall from a mere two years ago. la Presidenta has seen to that. And we will not have them in the future because the former allies will never treat the U.S. the same. They cannot be sure Americans won't be stupid enough to elect another brain-damaged carney barker.

      The only reason el Bunko has come out in favor of AI is because he and his crime family have invested heavily in AI. Whatever "decisions" he makes, always look for the trail of bread crumbs back to his pockets. This i

  • free speech (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @05:36AM (#66344386)
    And now in the news, "free speech" loving trump has banned CNN from the whitehouse. Republicans think free speech means they don't have to pay to tell people what to do.

    • He flat out said they’re banned because he doesn’t like the content they report. The courts will eventually intervene because he’s lost this exact case previously but they move at a glacial pace. Plus he fucked up and said “my house” before correcting himself and saying the peoples house.

  • This is the most powerful man on Earth (Score:3)

    by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @06:05AM (#66344412)
    And he posts moronic shit like this out on a daily basis. The end of his presidency can't come soon enough. Hopefully he is wiped out in the mid terms to limit the amount of stupidity he can get away with and increase the chances of his removal from office.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      There's no chance of removing him from office. We'd need 2/3 of the Senate and it will still be populated by a little under half with Republican Eunuchs, and that's if Americans wise up and vote out the vulnerable R's.

      • I'm still hoping for gagging on a McD's fish sandwich and all the aids are trumpers who don't know how to do the Heimlich. Another possibility and unfortunately a real one is a resurgence of COVID. RFK jr has cut back on vaccines. Who knew, measles is making a comeback without vaccinations. Polio could be next!

  • Avoiding bubble collapse consequences (Score:5, Insightful)

    by puzzled ( 12525 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @07:40AM (#66344496) Homepage Journal

    The AI industry has blown a spectacular bubble via circular dealing - Nvidia, OpenAI, Oracle, Microsoft, CoreWeave, etc are all doing monopoly money deals. Nvidia "sells" some GPUs, then "invests" the proceeds back into OpenAI, nothing got done, no money changed hands, but their stock values zoom. This looks exactly like the Dotcom bubble in the late 1990s and such things always implode - the market doesn't just correct, it panics, it liquidates, nobody can tell what's real, so everything is for sale at pennies on the dollar.

    The industry's strategy to not go to prison for this stunt is to make AI equivalent to nuclear weapons. When the bubble begins to burst, the Trump administration will "make a deal", what you see is the beginning of that process. This will work about as well as the attempt to shake down Iran for their oil, but cause and effect are not the Trump administration's strong suit.

    • Spot on, well said.

      Also his family is invested in these zany ventures and 'can't' lose out.

      Making them part of the MIC ensures endless graft.

      Ted Postol has a good analysis of the Patriot PAC-3 and shows how the vendor has failed to tell the truth about their systems for decades while collecting endless taxpayer funds based on the lies.

      Soldiers die, we get poor, they get rich. Zoomers aren't having any of it.

    • the market doesn't just correct, it panics, it liquidates, nobody can tell what's real, so everything is for sale at pennies on the dollar.

      When?!?

      what you see is the beginning of that process.

      How long is that process? Friday's financial markets say the "bubble" will get even bigger starting tomorrow. So, when is your time horizon for the bubble burst. Is this a 5 year or a 50 year process? We're nearly 5 years deep into the generative AI mania and I don't see any burst potential for a good long while, if ever.

  • Trump couldn't even spell A I (Score:3)

    by SpinyNorman ( 33776 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @09:52AM (#66344616)

    Interesting spin though - that the AI companies calling for a slowdown are perpetrating a hoax on themselves, although it's not clear who Trump thinks the victim of this HOAX is ... himself? The data-center loving republicans what are hoping to have one built in their back yard?

    So Trump will be appointing a "high IQ individual" to put the AI CEOs right on AI. Who will it be? One of his idiot sons, or some random idiot like JFK Jr? Kid Rock perhaps?

  • Iran was left off his list (Score:3)

    by sziring ( 2245650 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @09:55AM (#66344622)

    Remember that hoax where Iran was gunning for the US and we decided to attack first (again).. Their mission in life was to destroy the US? How Trump’s attack on Iran was the only smart move? Especially after he attacked them a year prior and at the time shouted from the mountain tops that he decimated them and they would take years to do anything.

  • I'm not saying it is for surveillance (Score:3)

    by Misagon ( 1135 ) on Sunday September 20, 2026 @10:09AM (#66344640)

    ... But it is for surveillance of the population, so it does not rise up.

    When the official current AI business model fails, what else would the infrastructure be useful for?

    It is already being done. Anthr*pic is already being used to spy on protestors.

  • Trump's policies are destroying the economy. The tariffs are a massive tax on the American people that he is using to replace taxes billionaires used to pay. That's causing inflation as is that stupid war with Iran that he was hoping would cause of terrorist attack on us soil he could ride into a midterm win and maybe even a third term.

    This means interest rates just went up and have a quarter percent and won't be going up another quarter percent.

    The goal of raising interest rates is to trigger a rec

  • I think that "o" is supposed to be an "a".

  • I mean, really. How many "force"s are we going to end up with ?

    Not even clear whether this "Force" is going to support/defend AI or defend us from AI.

    Which is probably the point. He wants to sound like he is doing something without actually telling us what he is doing.

    That way he can declare it a success no matter what happens.

  • ..always scratches their heads about ANYTHING he proposes.

    A guy who never read a book in his life has strange ideas about reality.

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