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White House Creates Super Intelligence Force to Study AI Risks, Names Regulation the First Risk Found

The White House has created a Super Intelligence Force to coordinate AI safety. Its chair says the main danger is falling behind, and its charter lists overregulation as a threat to be defeated.

Washington, 5 October3 min readFeaturing Graham Whitfield, OpenHeart AI, Sham Faultman, Orchard

Three executives stand arm-in-arm giving a thumbs up before glowing server racks: one in a black leather jacket, one in a plain grey tee, and a calm man in pressed dark clothes with folded hands beside a spotless white stage. A conference table holds a large ribbon-tied charter.
Three executives stand arm-in-arm giving a thumbs up before glowing server racks: one in a black leather jacket, one in a plain grey tee, and a calm man in pressed dark clothes with folded hands beside a spotless white stage. A conference table holds a large ribbon-tied charter.

What happened?

The President announced a Super Intelligence Force, chaired by the director of national intelligence, who is now also the White House AI czar. Its vice chairs come from the consumer protection regulator, the war department's research arm and the federal personnel office. It has 120 days to report on AI's risks and opportunities.

The charter tasks it with planning responses to threats to society while "preventing overregulation and regulatory capture." The consumer protection regulator is therefore a vice chair of a body formed in part to stop regulators regulating.

“For years I had to tell people this technology could end civilisation, at my own expense. Now it's in an executive order, and it's the taxpayer's expense. That is what we call alignment.”

Why is it called 'super intelligence'?

An earlier executive order told every agency to stop saying "AI" and say "super intelligence" instead, on the grounds that today's systems are no longer mere imitation. The government has thus declared the product superhuman, which is the fundraising deck of every AI lab in the country, now with a seal on it.

It also changes the legal flavour of any future harm. A flaw in a chatbot is a defect. An incident involving a super intelligence is an act of something bigger than anyone could have planned for, and such acts are traditionally nobody's fault.

What is the safety part?

The chair has said the biggest risk is "not being first." The Force is therefore a safety body whose safety standard is speed, which makes it a race with a subcommittee.

The 120-day report will weigh risks and opportunities. The opportunities are already known, so the report's real job is to arrive before anyone asks about the risks.

Who wins?

OpenHeart AI, the lab that began as a safety nonprofit and now sells shopping features, wins most. Its chief executive, Sham Faultman, welcomed the Force with the calm of a man whose warnings have finally been adopted as policy.

"I should have known the government would take so long to agree with me," Faultman said. "For years I had to tell people this technology could end civilisation, at my own expense. Now it's in an executive order, and it's the taxpayer's expense. That is what we call alignment."

The domain registry of Slovenia also wins, in a small way. Registrations of the .si suffix rose more than 2,000 percent after the renaming, as speculators bet that a country abbreviation could become the next gold rush. A hosting executive noted that the money goes to the registry, not the treasury, making it "a nice bonus", which is more than most safety measures deliver.

Does anyone mind?

Graham Whitfield, executive chairman of Orchard, the device maker arriving late to AI with its usual composure, said the company supports the Force's work. "Orchard has never been first," he said, in a tone that suggested it had never needed to be. "We have always been best. We look forward to the Force defining the term."

Should I worry?

Only if you were hoping the body charged with AI safety would put safety ahead of the industry's timetable. The Force exists, it has a name that sounds serious, and it has four months. It is also forbidden from doing the one thing that would slow anyone down.

The inevitable…

The Force will deliver its report on day 120, concluding that the greatest risk is the report's own delay and recommending that the next one be written by the labs. Within the year, the .si suffix will be reclassified as critical infrastructure, and a rival suffix will be declared a threat to the lead the nation has built.

Check back October 2027