Trump Proposes "AI Force" and "AI Czar" as Critics Call for Slower Development

President Donald Trump announced Saturday on Truth Social that he intends to create a new "AI Force" and appoint an "AI czar" to lead it, offering no timeline, organizational details, or candidates for the role.

The announcement comes amid growing calls from across the political spectrum — and from within the technology industry itself — to slow the pace of artificial intelligence development.

In the post, Trump said his administration "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!" He did not elaborate on what authority or budget the proposed AI Force would carry.

Trump drew a parallel to his earlier creation of the Space Force, which he described as a "tremendous SUCCESS," framing the AI Force as a logical extension of that model. He added that "Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!" for the AI czar position, without indicating how candidates would be vetted or selected.

The president also asserted, without providing evidence, that data centers raise salaries, lower taxes, and reduce crime in the communities where they are built, calling such facilities "wealthy and prestigious."

The proposal arrives at a moment when cybersecurity researchers and policy analysts are actively debating how AI is reshaping threats to critical infrastructure — including energy systems. Experts warn that while rogue AI agents have drawn headlines following recent high-profile incidents, human adversaries wielding AI tools remain the more immediate danger.

"It's literally any sociopath that wants to [attack] is now more powerful than they used to be," said Joshua Corman, executive in residence for public safety and resilience at the Institute for Security and Technology. "This has been a force multiplier and continues to grow."

Sophie McDowall, a research associate at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation, told The Verge that AI is accelerating the pace of adversarial operations in ways that defenders struggle to match. "The true difference from AI is that it's letting adversaries move more quickly — but it's very challenging for those defending the infrastructure to match that pace," she said.

McDowall also called for regulatory guardrails comparable to those governing nuclear technologies and hazardous materials, noting that no equivalent policy framework yet exists for AI. "This is a technological scientific development that could cause potential risk to critical infrastructure systems, that can cause potential threat to human life. And so there does need to be restrictions," she said, while adding that research could continue responsibly alongside such rules.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy is already acting on its own AI priorities. Justin Fanelli, the Department of Navy's chief technology officer, shared an updated internal technology roadmap this week covering five priority areas: applied AI, quantum information science, advanced networking, electromagnetic spectrum operations, and digital engineering and interoperability.

Fanelli said the Navy spends "in the $150 billion range every year" across all purchasing, though he distinguished that figure from direct equity investment, which he described as rare. The Navy, he noted, mostly acquires from Series D through F stage companies, and is working to signal its longer-term buying plans to private investors so that commercial capital flows toward technologies the Navy will eventually want to procure.

Recent Navy contracts illustrate that strategy in practice. A $562 million contract was awarded this month for the MQ-25 Stingray, an autonomous refueling drone designed to extend the range of carrier-based fighter jets. The Navy has also brought in Domino Data Lab to run its machine learning pipeline and replaced a defense contractor's years-delayed shipboard camera system with commercial cameras and software from Applied Intuition, cutting roughly four years off the deployment timeline.

Whether Trump's proposed AI Force would intersect with — or duplicate — existing defense-side AI initiatives remains unclear. The White House has yet to provide any structural definition for the body, and no legislation or executive order had been announced as of Saturday.

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