Jay Clayton calls super intelligence a national security issue

Jay Clayton, the US Director of National Intelligence, went on CNBC on September 30 and made a statement that would have sounded like science fiction a few years ago: super intelligence is a national security issue, and the United States cannot afford to hit the brakes on developing it. Clayton, who was confirmed as DNI by a 51-47 Senate vote on July 28 and sworn in on August 3, drew a direct comparison between the current race for super intelligence and the nuclear arms race. The implication was clear. Whoever gets there first sets the rules for everyone else. The White House summit that set the stage Clayton’s remarks came one day after a White House summit on September 29 that brought together some of the most powerful people in technology. President Trump hosted Sundar Pichai of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, and Elon Musk of xAI for discussions on frontier AI development. The summit produced a voluntary agreement called the “Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities,” signed by the attending tech CEOs. The agreement focuses on implementing four layers of internal and external controls for managing frontier models. Trump also used the summit to issue an executive order th...