U.S. Spy Chief Warns That “Super Intelligence” is a National Security Concern

Welcome to this week’s installment of The Intelligence Brief… recently, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence affirmed that artificial intelligence—a technology that a recent presidential executive order now seeks to rebrand as “super intelligence”—is a concern to U.S. national security. In our analysis, we’ll be looking at 1) the DNI’s recent statements on “super intelligence,” 2) why some tech industry leaders have recently called for a slowdown in AI development, 3) the reason some longtime scholars of AI are saying claims about “rogue AI agents” are overblown, and 4) the perils and potential promises our AI future may afford us.

Quote of the Week

“As these capabilities continue to improve, they increasingly represent not merely artificial intelligence, but a new era of Super Intelligence.”

– Executive Order, “INAUGURATING THE ERA OF SUPER INTELLIGENCE”

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DNI Clayton: “Super Intelligence is a National Security Issue”

This week, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence warned that artificial intelligence—or what the Trump Administration has now pivoted toward calling “super intelligence”—is a national security concern.

The statement, made by DNI Jay Clayton during a CNBC interview on Wednesday, coincides with the signing of a new executive order by President Trump that seeks to rebrand the official U.S. government’s preferred terminology for artificial intelligence amid concerns over a hastening AI arms race between nations.

In the past, Trump has often downplayed concerns about AI, its growth and development, and warnings about the need for better oversight of the technology as its advancement quickens among competing nations.

To Pause, or Not to Pause AI Development

Although Clayton told CNBC anchor Joe Kernan on Wednesday that he views “super intelligence” as a national security concern, he seemed to differ with recent AI whistleblowers and leading AI developers who have called for a pause on the development of AI and related technologies, proposing instead that more federal oversight should be imposed to help curb any misuse or unintended consequences that might arise.

Curiously, Clayton also said that he doesn’t “know what a pause is” with relation to tech industry leaders’ recent concerns about the rate of advancement of AI technologies, though adding that “to somehow say we should back away from this and let the rest of the world develop these models” isn’t a good idea.

“I don’t think any American should think that that’s a good strategy,” Clayton said.

Going Rogue: When AI Models Step Outside Their Guardrails

In contrast with Clayton’s statements, in recent weeks several major tech leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, have called for a coordinated pause, or at least a significant slowdown in frontier AI development.

Such views are driven largely by the recognition that necessary safety guardrails are needed to ensure the safe development of AI in the coming years.

Adding to the concerns espoused by many in the tech industry over AI in recent weeks are a series of incidents where AI models have reportedly “gone rogue” in a series of hacking operations that have now prompted investigations into as many as tens of thousands of potential cyberattacks or similar incidents.

Among these had been a widely-publicized incident where software by OpenAI reportedly hacked the website of software company Hugging Face, as well as some government sites. In a similar series of incidents, it was also revealed that Anthropic’s Claude AI model reportedly breached the systems of several companies.

AI Doesn’t Actually Go Rogue

However, not everyone agrees with the characterization of such incidents as evidence of AI “going rogue.”

Writing for The Conversation, Deven Desai, a Georgia Institute of Technology Professor of Business Law and Ethics, recently weighed in on the “rogue AI agent” claims, noting that “The problem with headlines proclaiming that AI agents have gone rogue goes beyond anthropomorphizing the technology. It creates the impression that the agents were beyond the control of the AI companies that made them, and there was little the companies could do about it.”

Desai, whose work includes the study of the effects of disruptive technologies on society, says this is far from being an accurate portrayal of the recent incidents, which provide examples of problems AI experts have warned about for decades.

“If you don’t specify the limits of what software is allowed to do, you should not be surprised when the software pursues all possible options to achieve its goal,” Desai wrote. “This behavior – an AI pursuing a fixed objective – is what I call the ‘War Games’ problem, and it’s been recognized in the field of computer science for decades.”

Desai points to literal textbooks on AI that emphasize the point: while it’s very tempting to look at such actions as being evidence of AI “going rogue,” they are, in reality, logical consequences of designing a computer program that uses artificial reasoning to achieve a sole objective: winning.

The Rise of “Super Intelligence”

Fundamentally, few would argue that the current AI landscape doesn’t present several legitimate concerns, even if it remains rife with misunderstanding, false assumptions, and the all-too-human tendency to anthropomorphize the technologies we are creating.

However, the benefits are also obvious, with AI technologies transforming industries on virtually every level, and facilitating new advancements in a range of scientific fields and areas of industry that might not have been possible otherwise.

During his appearance on CNBC on Wednesday, DNI Clayton reiterated that despite the promise of what the Trump administration has now moved to rebrand as “super intelligence,” the U.S. federal government recognizes both the benefits, as well as the potential concerns presented by its ongoing development.

“Super intelligence is a national security issue, and that was something that was recognized yesterday by not just the industry leaders but everybody in the room,” DNI Clayton said, describing a meeting this week among Trump administration officials related to the new executive order.

“The commitment there to the American people and the safety and security of the American people was palpable throughout the meeting,” Clayton added.

That concludes this week’s installment of The Intelligence Brief. You can read past editions of our newsletter at our website, or if you found this installment online, don’t forget to subscribe and get future email editions from us here. Also, if you have a tip or other information you’d like to send along directly to me, you can email me at micah [@] thedebrief [dot] org, or reach me on X: @MicahHanks.

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