The US Department of Justice announced Thursday the creation of the Super Intelligence (SI) Task Force (DOJ-SITF). The unit is responsible for ensuring that U.S. artificial intelligence technology is not compromised or misused by foreign actors or fraudsters.
The new task force will be led by Attorney General subordinates Todd Blanche, Stanley Woodward and Stephen Weiss, according to a press release, which is full of the kind of statements you’d expect to hear from Trump administration officials.
Honestly, the release is quite shocking to read at this late date. This is reminiscent of President Donald Trump’s desperate attempt to rebrand AI as IS. Apparently we still do it.
Attorney General Todd Blanche, the president’s former personal lawyer, said “IS development will continue to be fueled by America’s innovators.”
Blanche’s statement continued to use “SI” several times. Everything is going a little differently after Tuesday’s elections, where Democrats scored historic victories across the country. Democrats have won at least 54 of 100 seats in the Senate (Mississippi and Alaska have not yet been called) and at least 252 of 435 seats in the House (25 races have not yet been called).
There has been a huge shift in the mood, and it remains to be seen whether the tech oligarchs will continue to appease Trump in the same way. There’s no denying they’ll need him if they want to continue landing massive government contracts. But when the Democratic House and Senate are in session in January, they will most likely open investigations that could make complicity in Trump’s actions look like a bad business decision.
For guys like Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, it was always about business. Working with Trump was a way to ensure they could get the best regulatory treatment (which, in the Trump White House, means no regulations at all). They didn’t really care whether there was a Republican or a Democrat sitting in the Oval Office.
Elon Musk can even be seen in a similar light. He was more than happy to shake hands and work with Democratic President Barack Obama as long as government grants and contracts helped Tesla and SpaceX. Sure, he seems to be a staunch supporter of Trump’s fascist worldview, but Musk has always been a businessman first and foremost, willing to crush anyone who might hinder his ability to become the world’s first billionaire.
The second these guys don’t need Trump anymore, there’s no reason to call it superintelligence. Besides, there’s no reason to call him Lake America or Gulf of America or whatever his broken brain spews out next.
He probably still has plenty of money to squeeze out of his dying MAGA mind. But we can expect to see them play the game less and less as Trump’s fascist coalition collapses.
Gn bussni
