Protecting America From Foreign Threats and Winning the AI Race

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, what’s going on in the world? Well, calling in today, we have Jay Clayton, and he is the Director of National Intelligence. He did such a great job of being the US Attorney in the Southern District in New York, the busiest district in the country, that the President put him in charge of National Intelligence, and he’s

0:22 got the whole world, I guess, reporting to him. And in addition to that, he didn’t have enough to do. The president also made him the AI czar. Well, it’s no longer called artificial intelligence anymore. It’s called superintelligence. Well, Jay Clayton, welcome to Sunday morning. Where do you want to start this morning?

0:45 Speaker 2 Well, I want to start by thanking you for having me back. And my fellow New Yorkers, it’s good to see that the good work of the Southern District of New York is continuing and that New York is the safest city because we’re getting gun-toting criminals off the streets and we’re bringing, and I compliment the women and men

1:07 of that office, and they’re bringing the most important cases and keeping New York safe. And John, I’ll just segue then into keeping people safe and the superintelligence force. That is the North Star of President Trump’s superintelligence force, which is going to make sure that America wins the superintelligence race and that we win it for the benefit of

1:35 the American people. I’m proud that the president tapped me, along with three others, Andrew Ferguson, who’s the head of the FTC, Scott Cooper, whose day job is OMB, and Emile Michael, Undersecretary at the Department of War, to lead a multi-pronged effort to make sure that superintelligence, which is going to affect many aspects of our lives, does so

2:06 where the U.S. Leads.

2:08 Speaker 2 We protect our national security. We grow jobs. And we emerge again as the leader, just as we did after the Industrial Revolution, just as we have in the Digital Revolution. And we’ll do it here.

2:24 Speaker 1 Well, I have to tell you, America is under attack in so many, many directions.

2:29 Speaker 3 You have to have your hands full.

2:32 Speaker 1 And whether it’s drugs, whether it’s infiltration of spies, etc., etc., where do you find your biggest problem watching over the FBI and watching over the CIA and all the other agencies?

2:55 Speaker 2 John, we have foreign adversaries and foreign competitors everywhere. who want to beat us. They want to beat us in the marketplace. And unfortunately, we have people who want to beat us in a much worse way, in a public safety, national security way. I mean, the Iranians have demonstrated that the eradication of the American people and the West generally

3:27 is the objective of Iranian leadership. We have to recognize that, and we have to deal with it. And I’m very proud that we’re dealing with that in a candid way with the American people. I think for too long, we told the American people that there was a way forward where Iranian leadership would come around and not seek the

3:52 destruction of the United States. I don’t believe that’s true.

3:59 Speaker 1 Jay, we have a problem. The problem is our enemies, and you know what I call our enemies after the James Bond name, Spectre. Whether it’s Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, those people want to create a problem for Washington to make Washington, to make our oil prices high, and to make President Trump look bad. But not only that, not

4:31 only that, we can understand our enemies doing that and creating $ 100 oil, $ 90 oil when it’s not necessary. But not only that, is European community, NATO, they want to make money. President Trump weaker, and they’d rather have him weaker by creating a problem and letting him lose one of their houses in Congress. And these people are being

5:03 fueled by foreign money. I mean, you oversee the CIA, you oversee the FBI. Have we been able to be able to come down to conclusions?

5:18 Speaker 2 John, if what you’re saying is, do our adversaries seek to sow dissent and distrust in America? The answer is absolutely yes. Do they use our open society, which we should fight to preserve? And I want to make it clear, I’m never advocating for any kind of abridgment of our fundamental rights. But we should recognize that people use our

5:45 open society, our social media platforms, to seek to sow dissent. There’s no doubt about it. And the American people, the first way to solve a problem is to recognize a problem. And you said it well, John. We have adversaries who want to see us harmed, and they will do so using all tools available to them.

6:07 Speaker 3 Understood.

6:08 Speaker 1 Now, the other thing you’re in charge of, you’ve got a big job, Jay, and we know each other for many years. The other big problem is SI, super intelligence. And the fact is, so many people are afraid of it.

6:26 And now we have, I guess, human-made robot drones with super intelligence. And so....

6:38 Speaker 3 John, you’re not going to stop in a global marketplace where communications are ubiquitous.

6:52 Speaker 2 You’re not going to stop technological development. So what you have to do is develop the technology in the American way where it’s safe. We’re at the frontier. We’re at the frontier. And because we’re at the frontier, we’re able to send off those who would use the technology against us.

7:11 I think that’s the path forward. It’s the path that we’ve taken in the past. And that’s what President Trump has tasked the SI force with doing. Helping America go forward fast and safe and fast is safe because if others get ahead of us, we’re much less safe.

7:34 Speaker 1 Understood. And I think President Trump is correct that we have to be number one regardless, because if we’re number one, then we got to be ahead of the curve versus behind the curve. You know, it’s Sunday morning. People are drinking their black coffee. They’re getting some of them are getting ready to go to church. What do you want

7:56 to tell the American people on Sunday morning?

7:58 Speaker 2 Now, John, we’ve talked about risk. and the need to win and how important it is. But I also want to tell the people that we’ve done this in the past. For decades and decades, America has led in technology and in security. And they should know that there are thousands of women and men, tens of thousands of women and

8:21 men at the federal government that are committed every day to keeping it that way.

8:27 Speaker 1 Well, Jake Clayton, director of national intelligence. Jake Clayton, the czar of not artificial intelligence, super intelligence. You got your hands full. You got the biggest job. I guess the president has given you one of the biggest jobs in Washington.

8:48 Thank you for everything you do, and thank you for keeping the American people safe. And by the way, your replacement, I understand, in the Southern District of New York, Jamie McDonald is doing a great job.

9:03 Speaker 2 He’s doing a fantastic job. He’s doing a fantastic job.

9:07 Speaker 1 And he’s keeping New Yorkers safe because whenever the rest of New York can’t do their job, Well, I guess the federal government under President Trump’s guidance and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York is keeping people safe. And thank you for putting him in that position.

9:28 Speaker 2 Thank you, John.

9:29 Speaker 1 Thank you so much.