First Came Space Force. Now Prepare For AI Force

President Trump announced on Truth Social that he will form an "AI Force" modeled on the Space Force and appoint an "AI Czar," a role venture capitalist David Sacks held until he stepped down earlier this year. Trump gave no details on the task force's responsibilities beyond saying it would resemble the Space Force, and Politico reported the tech industry was not informed before the announcement and is confused by it. The announcement follows warnings from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon that AI development is moving too fast, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman voicing agreement.

President Trump is sick of people “attacking” the AI industry, which is why he will be forming an “AI Force” and appointing an “AI Czar.” In a rambling rant https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117298821562014906 posted on his Truth Social account, Trump said he would “not stand by” as “the radical left” calls for “the decimation, or destruction, of AI.” Which is why he claims he will be forming the AI Force and soon appointing an AI Czar, a position that venture capitalist David Sacks held in his administration until he stepped down earlier this year. “Only High I.Q. individuals need apply ” Trump said about the AI Czar position. The President did not volunteer details on what this AI task force would do exactly, except that it will resemble the Space Force https://gizmodo.com/trump-drew-inspiration-for-new-space-force-uniforms-from-a-movie-about-fascism-2000808222 , a new branch of the U.S. Armed Forces that Trump established in his first presidential term. The Space Force’s self-proclaimed mission is to secure American interests in space, https://www.spaceforce.com/about which in practice has looked like managing space launches and acquiring weapons to prepare https://gizmodo.com/us-space-force-should-prepare-to-put-active-duty-troops-on-the-moon-report-argues-2000763440 for space-based warfare https://gizmodo.com/the-u-s-put-weapons-in-space-what-could-possibly-go-wrong-2000811878 . Considering the Trump administration’s eagerness https://gizmodo.com/openai-leadership-defends-deal-with-pentagon-as-employees-wait-in-limbo-2000728310 to deploy AI across the U.S. military organizations, despite reported near-catastrophic calls due to hallucinations https://gizmodo.com/almost-started-a-war-us-military-nearly-boarded-a-chinese-ship-based-on-bad-intel-from-ai-2000814290 , the AI Force could perhaps include military AI among its areas of responsibility. “We 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 ” Trump said in his vague explanation of the new initiative. “However, we will also be looking for BAD, and we can do that, very easily, with our already existing Criminal and Civil Justice System.” The tech industry was not informed prior to his announcement and are equally confused as well, per Politico https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/19/tech-industry-scratches-head-over-ai-force-01085319 . Trump’s announcement comes as AI industry insiders and company executives themselves have been ringing alarm bells https://gizmodo.com/openai-anthropic-and-google-join-forces-for-safety-as-antitrust-concerns-mount-2000811888 over the rapid trajectory of AI development. Earlier this month, a former Anthropic employee, Jacob Coxon, posted on social media saying that he had resigned and claimed that “the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” Just days later Coxon’s boss, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, published an essay warning that the current pace of AI development was too fast and urging the government to intervene to facilitate a slowdown. Competitors SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman voiced their agreement with Amodei’s analysis, while critics described the pleas as either covert attempts at scoring favorable regulation https://gizmodo.com/a-reminder-from-lina-khan-we-dont-need-new-laws-to-prosecute-ceos-at-ai-companies-2000811503 from Washington, or classic AI doomerism meant to stifle innovation. Trump himself has argued that the whole AI is developing too fast; we need to slowdown argument is a hoax and he has referred to the steadily growing public scrutiny https://gizmodo.com/americans-are-starting-to-really-hate-data-centers-and-its-making-the-tech-industry-nervous-2000767088 against unrestrained AI development and data center buildout as a “ SICK conspiracy https://gizmodo.com/politicians-to-humanity-drop-dead-2000811320 ” that only benefits China. In the latest Truth Social post, he doubled down on his claims that the reported negative impacts AI data centers have on local communities are a farce, and that in reality they only lead to “Higher Salaries, Lower Taxes, and Safer Streets.” But the public anxiety over AI development is far from quelled, which could have put extra pressure on the President to do something addressing the AI doom fears, or at least appear as if he is doing something, especially with the topic becoming a huge polling point https://gizmodo.com/report-on-candidates-for-office-finds-ai-is-more-talked-about-than-racism-or-israel-2000799126 in the lead up to a highly consequential round of midterm elections in November. That effort might also include running PR on behalf of AI itself. Along with the AI Force announcement, the President also began leading an online poll https://gizmodo.com/youll-never-guess-what-trump-wants-to-rename-now-2000814488 on his Truth Social account over the weekend to rename “artificial intelligence.” He is down to these two options as of Sunday: Superior Intelligence SI or Extreme Intelligence EI .