Trump AI Task Force Co-Chair: No Rush on AI Rules, Speed Is the Strategy
The Trump administration's new AI task force will not fast-track federal regulations, according to co-chair Scott Kupor, who argues that hasty rulemaking risks locking in outdated frameworks in a market evolving at exponential velocity.
Kupor, a Silicon Valley veteran and director of the Office of Personnel Management, spoke with Axios on Monday following his appointment to the task force. He will co-chair alongside Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson and Pentagon undersecretary Emil Michael, with National Intelligence Director Jay Clayton serving as AI czar.
Why the administration is deliberately slowing the regulatory clock
Kupor's position is unambiguous: the worst outcome is a two-year policy cycle that produces obsolete doctrine. The protocol is clear: observe, iterate, then codify. The task force is prioritizing velocity of learning over speed of legislation.
“The last thing we want to do is go into a hole for two years and come up with some big policy which will be outdated,” Kupor said.
This approach mirrors the open source ethos: ship early, audit continuously, patch as needed. Static regulatory schemas, he warns, generate unintended consequences that compound like unpatched vulnerabilities.
Internal disagreements are a feature, not a bug
Asked about divergent views within the administration on government intervention, Kupor acknowledged the political friction but framed it as a distributed consensus mechanism.
“We live in D.C. There's nothing that's not political in this town. People have different views and that's totally fine. Our obligation is to demonstrate to the American people that this is good and also that we take the anxieties and the concerns seriously.”
The final directive, however, is singular: “We need to win.” Kupor's Silicon Valley lens treats early market problems as normal and points to improvement curves that are steep and accelerating.
Rejecting the “no regulation” critique
Kupor rejects the charge that the administration is choosing not to regulate. The absence of a headline legislative package is not dormancy; it is deliberate protocol design.
“The worst thing for us to do would be to assume a static set of knowledge that allows us to put a regulatory schema in place that then has unintended consequences.”
He also defended the CEO-signed AI safety documents as binding through existing fiduciary and securities law mechanisms. Third-party audits and independent board committees, he argues, carry legal weight that critics dismiss at their own risk.
What the task force does next
Kupor confirmed a kickoff meeting is likely this week, convening task force members and relevant government officials. The goal is not a dissertation; it is a reconciliation protocol between two objectives: winning the AI race and managing its risks.
Hiring pipeline: 360 in, 1,000 targeted
On the administration's push to bring 1,000 tech-sector hires into government by year-end, Kupor reported roughly 360 currently in the program, with confidence in reaching 550 within two months. The 1,000 target remains an open variable.
For The Cloud Nation, the signal is clear: governance is becoming an iterative protocol, not a static statute. The state is being refactored in real time.