White House AI Task Force Adopts Charter, Starts 120-Day Clock

Cheng Xin/Getty Images The White House’s artificial intelligence task force adopted its charter Thursday, opening a 120-day window to advise on how much of an oversight role Washington should take. The panel agreed after its first official meeting to commission a report from the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology evaluating AI risk, according to Semafor. The review covers cybersecurity and critical-infrastructure protection, biosecurity and dual-use applications, and model control and accountability. A White House official said the group would reach outside government as it carries out its mandate. Throughout its work, the [task force] will engage with frontier model developers and other SI companies, consumer protection groups, and civil liberties advocates, industry stakeholders, and federal and state law enforcement agencies to inform and implement its efforts. The task force also created a working group to implement the White House Accord on Super Intelligence that major AI chief executives signed this month, a process led by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, the task force’s chair, alongside National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross. Defense Undersecretary Emil Michael, a vice chair, will develop protocols for labs to report breaches, hacks, and other cyber incidents to the government. The Pentagon official will also interface with frontier labs on long-term coordination across the government. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson will lead a law-enforcement and consumer-protection committee that includes the Justice Department, while Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor will handle critical-infrastructure protection and study AI’s impact on the American workforce with the Labor Department. Members include Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios, along with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and her deputy, Richard Walters. A White House official told Semafor that one potential lever is export controls, which the Commerce Department temporarily imposed on Anthropic after the company declined to grant the government unfettered access to its models. The task force’s work follows President Donald Trump’s September 29 executive order directing federal agencies to replace “artificial intelligence” with “super intelligence,” signed the same day roughly two dozen technology executives attended a White House luncheon and six frontier firms signed the voluntary Accord that Trump called “morally binding.” Clayton, a former SEC chairman confirmed as intelligence chief over the summer, told the Wall Street Journal the administration’s priority is keeping the United States ahead of China. “The risk of not being first is high,” Clayton said.