Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton is reportedly on the verge of being named the Trump administration's artificial intelligence czar. While the role is expected to focus strictly on overseeing the domestic AI industry and the administration's AI Force, Clayton's past tenure as a tech watchdog for digital assets remains notable to the tech sector.
Clayton served as SEC chairman during President Donald Trump's first administration and oversaw the initial wave of the agency's regulation-by-enforcement approach to cryptocurrency. Notably, he initiated the high-profile legal battle against Ripple Labs in late 2020 just before departing the agency, accusing the company of failing to register roughly $1.3 billion in XRP token sales as securities.
During his tenure, Clayton also established the SEC's Cyber Unit in 2017 to police initial coin offerings and emerging industry activity. By the time he left office in 2020, the agency had brought 57 enforcement cases against digital assets, blockchain businesses, and ICOs, utilizing rhetoric focused on investor fraud and registration violations that later characterized the tenure of his successor, Gary Gensler.
The newly configured AI czar position differs from the role previously held by David Sacks, who served as a combined crypto and AI czar before stepping down in March. White House crypto policy has since been handled by adviser Patrick Witt, and the upcoming AI-focused role under Clayton does not appear to include digital asset oversight on its official agenda.
Before returning to public service as a U.S. attorney and later serving as Trump's director of national intelligence, Clayton spent several years on the board of private equity firm Apollo Global Management, which backed artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure projects. In a previous CNBC interview, Clayton described AI as an issue of national security while opposing proposals to pause the technology's development.
