US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday, in posts on his social network Truth Social, the creation of an "AI Force" and the upcoming appointment of an artificial intelligence "czar". According to G1, the body will oversee regulation and monitor the technology; according to InfoMoney, the stated goal is to foster the sector without adding new restraints. Trump gave no details on composition, powers or the name of the future appointee. In Washington jargon, a "czar" is a White House coordinator for a topic that cuts across many agencies, reporting straight to the president, like a project manager installed inside the presidential palace.
Trump likened the move to the creation of the Space Force, the military branch he set up in his first term, and wrote that AI "is the next Industrial Revolution, or the next internet, but it will be even bigger and have an even bigger impact", according to InfoMoney. He estimated the technology could reach 25% of US GDP, without citing a timeframe or source. On the same day he opened a poll to replace the term "artificial intelligence" with options such as "Superior Intelligence" and "Supreme Intelligence", with no explanation of how the change would work, G1 reported. In his post, Trump wrote:
"We will not, in any way, stop or slow the growth of this incredible industry. On the contrary, we will value it, support it and make sure it keeps growing."
Why now
The announcement lands in the middle of a fight over the pace of AI development. On the 12th, Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei published the essay "We need to slow down the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models", calling for a pause to strengthen safety. The thesis drew support from Sam Altman of OpenAI, Elon Musk of xAI and Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind, and was rejected by Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, who backs market rules and the threat of lawsuits, G1 reported. Trump called warnings about AI risks a "hoax" and likened them to climate change predictions. G1 also reports that an antitrust lawsuit filed in the US accuses major industry players, including Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, of coordinating efforts to slow the technology down.
Each player has an incentive, and it explains the positions. Companies that already run expensive, advanced models gain from a pause that raises costs for smaller rivals; those lagging behind prefer to speed up. For Trump, speed is a geopolitical bet: "We are ahead of China and the rest of the world, and I intend to keep that leadership", he wrote. AI is on the agenda of Washington-Beijing talks ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, set for September 24 in Washington, InfoMoney reported. The czar job is not new to this White House: David Sacks left the post of AI and crypto policy chief in March and became co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Energy is the other thread. The AI race shows up as data centers, warehouse-sized halls of servers that train and run the systems, pushing electricity demand up and reviving the question of who pays for the grid. Trump defended data centers as sources of higher wages and tax revenue, and the same debate is moving through Congress: on Wednesday the House of Representatives passed, 417 to 3, the Ratepayer Protection Act, which directs state regulators to weigh whether large consumers, including data centers, should bear the extra costs of electric infrastructure. Trump said he is discussing the bill's path with Senate Republican leader John Thune, InfoMoney reported. Brazil is pulling the other way on the most sensitive item: President Lula has already said data center companies will have to invest in their own renewable energy, as Braziltopia has reported.
What we still don't know
For now, the whole package exists as social media posts. There is no published executive order, no budget and no definition of powers, and the Space Force comparison does not settle whether the "AI Force" will be a formal agency or a coordination group. The 25% of GDP projection came with no source and no date, and Trump himself said only that the czar will be named "soon".
Watch three fronts in the coming days: the name of the czar and whatever powers arrive on paper; the Trump-Xi meeting on September 24, with AI on the table; and the fate of the Ratepayer Protection Act in the Senate, which will decide who pays the electricity bill of the AI race. If the announcement becomes a signed rule, the signal is explicit deregulation; if it stays in the posts, it is another piece of rhetoric in the dispute with China.