President Trump announced Saturday that he’s giving artificial intelligence the Space Force treatment. On Truth Social post, the president said he’s creating an “AI Force” and searching for an AI czar, casting it as a federal team that will “watch over” the fast-moving technology without getting in its way, the Wall Street Journal reports. “We will not in any way hinder or stifle” AI, Trump wrote, even as a new Gallup poll shows nearly half of Americans strongly oppose AI data centers in their communities. His statement constitutes a rejection of the calls from lawmakers and industry leaders for the government to slow AI’s development, per the Washington Post; he’s labeled those concerns a “hoax.”
He also criticized opposition to data centers in the post. Trump said little about what an AI Force would do, what part of the government it would be in, or what its budget would be, per Axios, and the White House did not provide any more information. In his post, in which he likened the new unit to Space Force, Trump floated using alternative names for AI, such as “Superior Intelligence” and “Extreme Intelligence.” He asked Truth Social followers to vote for their preference.
