AI Race Puts U.S. Security and Control in Focus

Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton said U.S. companies and the Trump administration “need to be wary” of foreign espionage as the race for AI dominance accelerates. AI, he said, “amplifies” cybersecurity risks to interconnected U.S. digital infrastructure, including systems tied to public services, national defense and global communications. The White House has given government officials and private-sector companies new roles in monitoring AI risks and protecting critical infrastructure.

Security and oversight

Clayton, head of a new White House AI task force, said the government is focused on “hardening those systems” and using “our commitment to continue to lead to stay ahead of those nefarious actors.” Commercial and state-sponsored espionage, he said, are “realities” that companies and government “need to be wary of.”

His comments came after authorities recently revealed a case charging Saudi national Abdulrahman Alfozan with allegedly installing a recording device in an OpenAI executive conference room. Alfozan hasn’t been charged with espionage; the federal charge involves alleged interception of oral communications. Federal prosecutors said Alfozan, an OpenAI employee, had booked a one-way plane ticket to Saudi Arabia with his wife and another family member before his arrest.

Clayton said the incident “shows the lengths that people will go to try and supplant our leadership in this, or at least stay close to us in this emerging technology.” This week, an ex-CIA official speaking anonymously about non-public information told CNBC the case is “probably the tip of the iceberg.”

The White House task force held its first meeting on Thursday. It builds on an accord signed by President Donald Trump and several AI leaders at the White House last month. Trump called the agreement, which includes industry pledges to police AI risks themselves, “morally binding.”

The task force formed three subcommittees: one for reporting and response, another to assess critical infrastructure and work with the private sector, and a third focused on law enforcement and responsibility. Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross will lead a working group with companies that signed the accord to monitor its implementation.

Department of Defense Under Secretary Emil Michael will create a process for leading labs to report breaches or hacks committed by their agents and lead a working group of labs. OPM Director Scott Kupor will oversee efforts to protect critical infrastructure from AI-enabled harms, while FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson will lead a committee on applying existing laws to AI. The task force also discussed tracking AI’s effects on job loss and the economy, and assigned that work to the Department of Labor.

Export controls and competing rules

Clayton said the United States wasn’t the only country developing AI, naming “the Chinese, the Russians, the Iranians, the North Koreans” as having significant technical capability. China said Friday it plans to restrict or ban exports of 40 technologies spanning AI, chips and solar power. The Financial Times headline described a draft of export controls on AI technologies and chips, but the extracted page content gave no further details about the proposal.

At an International AI Summit in Dublin, European Union officials said Europe needed no new rules as it sought to catch up with the U.S. tech sector. Irish Commissioner and EU justice chief Michael McGrath said, “We are satisfied for now. We have an appropriate system of regulation in place.”

Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith said Europe wanted rules “a little lighter in weight” and more supportive of innovation while protecting public safety. Washington, he said, had “more voices really point to the need for strong protection of the public.” Smith said Europe’s AI Act may need a revamp, and that the discussion “deserves some more attention and involvement.”

Google DeepMind’s former chief executive Demis Hassabis warned that AI rules can quickly fall behind the technology. “If you legislate for something three years ago, it would be out of date today, and actually probably won't even address what the real problems are,” he said. A Google DeepMind spokesperson said Hassabis was stressing that AI rules and governance should be adaptable.

Industry capacity and institutional roles

Irish foreign direct investment agency West Coast head Ivan Houlihan said, “It's funny how the U.S. now wants that regulation that we've been working on, that we have deployed at this point.” In a Dublin keynote, EU tech official Henna Virkkunen said the AI Act leaves Europe “well-equipped” to tackle risks from advanced AI.

Smith said the EU’s AI Office would need “technical capability” and experienced software, AI and engineering experts. The U.K.'s AI Security Institute, he said, was “at the forefront today.” U.S. tech leaders increasingly see the institute as a leading institution for AI evaluation and research, and Nvidia has invested in the U.K.'s safety apparatus.

Vodafone chief external and corporate affairs officer Joakim Reiter said Europe lacked the capital to deploy at scale and build frontier models. Siemens chief technology and strategy officer Peter Koerte contrasted investment of 280 billion last year with Europe’s 20 billion. He said the U.S. “doesn't have a lot of industrial data” and urged the EU to “start building” but “not rebuild what's been built already.”

The Dublin summit drew no notable chief executives from the largest U.S. technology firms. Hassabis and Smith attended; OpenAI sent Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar, and Meta sent deputy Kevin Martin after the summit had promised an appearance by its chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t attend. Nvidia's Jensen Huang toured European capitals during the week but skipped the Irish leg. The extracted newsletter also said there was no obvious Trump administration presence in Dublin.