Trump's AI Force draws shrugs from industry and no detail from the White House

A day after President Trump said he would appoint an official responsible for artificial intelligence and form what he called an AI Force, nothing more has been said about either. Reuters and the Washington Post carried the Saturday announcement; Axios reported the force is modelled on Space Force. The Post said it rejected calls from lawmakers and industry leaders for new guardrails.

The statement came as parts of the industry ask for a slower pace. Bloomberg reported that Trump continued to push companies to race ahead with development despite growing fears about safety, and TechCrunch reported that he claimed, without evidence, that the backlash against AI is a Democratic hoax. The Wall Street Journal called it his first call for federal oversight of the industry.

Reaction was muted. Politico reported that the tech industry is scratching its head over the proposal. CNBC reported on Sunday that Nvidia's chief executive, Jensen Huang, has emerged as the president's closest ally in the debate. Trump telephoned Huang on stage at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles on Monday, CNBC said, to tell him the robots are not going to take over the world.

Opposition is growing among voters, according to the Journal. WIRED reported on Sunday that the president's base is running the opposite way on data centres. CNBC said that AI and data centre alarms were the main topic at the Congressional Black Caucus's annual gathering in Washington this week, on both sides of the argument.

Nothing has been filed. The BBC, the FT and the Hill reported the plan with no name for the czar and no date for the force. What it would do, who would staff it, and whether it needs an act of Congress are questions none of the accounts answers.