The search for Trump's Super Intelligence czar is now an open race after the president ruled out Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the reported frontrunner. Trump said Bessent "doesn't want to" the job and is doing "such a great job" at Treasury, dismissing the reports as "fake news." The New York Post reports multiple candidates are in the running to lead the new AI Force.

Trump announced the AI Force, modeled on the Space Force, on Sept. 19, pledging not to "hinder or stifle" AI growth and saying the technology could eventually account for as much as 25% of US GDP. The czar role has been vacant since David Sacks stepped down as AI and Crypto Czar on March 26 to become co-chair of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. Semafor and Reuters had earlier reported Bessent was in talks for the post.

Industry is racing to influence the AI Force's creation, while security experts call for guardrails, accountability and clearer rules for increasingly autonomous AI systems. Some in the AI policy community argue the renaming of AI to Super Intelligence could make it harder to legislate a ban on superintelligence, since the term now covers the technology as a whole.