US Justice Department sets up an AI task force under its new SI name

The US Justice Department has set up a task force to lead its work on AI crimes and AI lawsuits. It is called the Super Intelligence Task Force, the department said on Thursday.

The name follows a September order from President Donald Trump telling federal agencies to call AI “super intelligence” in official documents.

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and Associate Deputy Attorney General Stephen Weiss will lead the group. It will go after foreign states, criminal gangs, and people or firms that use AI for fraud, the DOJ said.

The task force will also absorb the DOJ’s AI Litigation Task Force, according to an internal memo from Attorney General Todd Blanche dated 13 October, Nextgov reported. That unit was created in January to challenge state AI laws in federal court.

The new group will also set priorities and write rules for how to prosecute AI crimes, according to Nextgov. It will be the DOJ’s main link to the White House’s Super Intelligence Force, led by intelligence director Jay Clayton.

“The Department of Justice will continue identifying and prosecuting individuals whose use of SI violates the law,” Blanche said in a statement.

Weiss said the DOJ would also push firms to keep tight controls so their AI works as planned. The DOJ did not say how many staff the task force will have or what it will cost.