The White House’s AI task force has formally adopted its charter, kicking off the short 120-day window it’s been given to answer some extremely thorny questions about how the government should handle the rapid development of AI technology.
According to an announcement shared first with Semafor, the task force agreed after its first official meeting Thursday to commission a report from the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology to evaluate AI risk in three areas: cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection, biosecurity and dual-use applications, and model control and accountability.
“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,” a White House official said in a statement. “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.”
It also agreed to make a working group tasked with implementing the White House Accord on Super Intelligence that major AI CEOs signed this month, a process led by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, the task force’s chair, along with National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross.
Defense Undersecretary Emil Michael, a task force vice chair, will lead an effort to develop protocols for labs to tell the government about breaches, hacks and other cyber issues. Michael is also in charge of interfacing with frontier AI labs and figuring out long-term coordination on AI across the government.
The task force also agreed to create a “law enforcement and consumer protection coordination committee” including the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission, led by FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson, also a vice chair. The last vice chair, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, will work with the public and private sector on critical infrastructure protection, and will work with the Department of Labor on studying the impact of AI on the American workforce and economy.
Members of the task force beyond the chairs include: Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios, plus Cairncross, Chris Klomp, the nominee to be the No. 2 at the Department of Health and Human Services, Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano, and National Security Agency Director Joshua Rudd, along with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and her deputy, Richard Walters.
It’s not yet entirely clear how compliance with the task force will be enforced or how current law may apply to companies who don’t adhere to the new protocols. A White House official told Semafor one stick could be export controls, which the Pentagon at one point temporarily imposed on Anthropic after the company refused to grant the government unfettered access to its models.