Why Jay Clayton will make a fantastic AI czar

Jay Clayton was a great pick to be President Donald Trump’s new artificial-intelligence czar — a smart guy to handle the delicate job of running the White House task force on the tech.The director of national intelligence has four months to report on the pros and cons of the technology; he’ll work with a larger task force ordered to figure out how the United States remains the leader in AI while “the interests of the American people are put first,” as he puts it.“The risk of not being first is high,” Clayton rightly told The Wall Street Journal — since letting Chinese companies, tightly controlled by their totalitarian government, take the lead basically ensures monstrous results even beyond ceding economic leadership to Beijing.Democrats are now running hard on AI hysteria, with Sen.Bernie Sanders pushing to stop research dead in its tracks (just months after he was calling for the feds to seize half the stock in AI firms).Also seeding fear are some AI insiders, whether because they’re looking to partner with Uncle Sam to shut out new competitors or because they’re in love with their own wilder speculation about their models becoming self-aware or even having souls.All of which makes Clayton, a smart but extremely level-headed guy, perfect as Trump’s point man and a nice contrast to the .

.. eccentric characters who helm the top AI firms.He’s a longtime corporate lawyer who helmed the Securities and Exchange Commission in Trump’s first term (annoying some because he was happy to work with Democrats to get his job done) then hard-charging US attorney for the Southern District of New York starting in 2025 (overseeing the thankless task of vetting the Epstein Files for public release) before taking over as DNI this summer.Since his only real critics are far-left ideologues like Sanders and Sen.

Liz Warren, he ought to be able to bolster support for Trump’s trust-but-verify approach to keeping AI development safe.Subscribe to our...