President Trump said on Saturday he was launching a new unit focused on artificial intelligence after leading figures in the industry publicly sounded the alarm over the growing technology.

"I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force, which has been a tremendous SUCCESS, in my First Term," Trump said on Truth Social. He added he is also recruiting an AI "czar." The president had appointed investor David Sacks as his AI and crypto czar before the businessman stepped down from that role to become co-chair of the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a role in which he is still one of Trump's top advisers on AI policy.

Saturday marks the first time the president has suggested there could be a new federal government entity solely dedicated to AI, but it isn't clear what role it would play. Several other units of the government work on tech policy including the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Commerce Department and the Defense Department.

Trump has been critical of proposals for increased AI regulations and defensive over attacks on the sector, arguing that limited guardrails are needed to stay ahead of China and boost the economy. "We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry. Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!" Trump said in his post.

Tech industry executives said it isn't clear how the new entity will work or who would be chosen for the czar role. Trump has been torn between one group of advisers who are worried about advancing capabilities of AI models and the cyber risks they pose and a second led by Sacks that wants minimal regulation.

The president has often changed his stance on various AI policies as a result, making the administration's moves difficult to predict.

"Nobody knows what this means," said Adam Kovacevich, head of center-left tech industry group Chamber of Progress. "He needs a czar because the last 6 months of AI policymaking in the White house without an AI czar has been chaos."

The haphazard post shows that Trump feels he has to act on AI but isn't sure what to do, Kovacevich added. "He's reading the polls like everyone else."

Trump is expected to meet with tech CEOs in the coming days to discuss AI policy and is also set to talk about the subject with China's Xi Jinping, who also has prioritized the technology's development.

Trump recently called efforts to regulate AI and fears about out-of-control models a "hoax," a position that contrasts with how many voters feel about the issue heading into the November midterms. A Gallup poll that was taken in March showed that nearly half of those surveyed "strongly oppose" the construction of local AI data centers, which are needed to run models that millions of people use daily.

Trump's concerns over voters' views on AI was reflected in his post. He invited his followers to vote in a poll he created for how to title artificial intelligence. "A far more elegant and accurate description of this new phenomena would be Superior Intelligence (SI) or, Extreme Intelligence (EI) or, Supreme Intelligence (SI). This is a Poll, and I would appreciate everybody voting!" Trump wrote.

The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. It is not clear how much federal funding will be made available, or who might lead the new initiative. Created during Trump's first term, the Space Force carries out the military's space operations. The Pentagon already has a Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office focused on AI, and many agencies have already focused on embedding the technology into their operations.

Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei has been among the most prominent voices in AI industry leadership calling for a slowdown in development. In a recent post to his personal blog, Amodei called for the AI industry to pace development of cutting-edge tools, suggesting new measures, including more global coordination among democratic countries and the introduction of third-party safety evaluators.

"I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong," he wrote.

An Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, recently said he was quitting the artificial-intelligence industry over fears that the company and its competitors are racing to build systems they soon won't be able to control.

In a speech at Colgate University on Friday evening, former President Barack Obama backed those companies that have called for a check on AI development, and endorsed calls for greater government oversight of the industry. "My view this week has been it is good that some of the leading companies have said we need to slow this down, and we should encourage that," he said.

"There have been some on the left who've said we shouldn't allow them to make that decision. I agree that that can't be a long-term solution. Government has to be regulating this."

Anthropic and the Trump administration have clashed for months. Anthropic sued the administration after the Pentagon marked the company as a supply-chain risk, and argued the Defense Department had illegally retaliated against the company for its standing on artificial-intelligence safety. A federal judge recently ruled in favor of Anthropic and found the administration's actions were unlawful.

Other tech companies have also signaled a need for caution. Microsoft published a provisional code of conduct that it aims to apply when training new AI models. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also warned that the dizzying pace of progress could go "very badly" and that humans could lose "control of the future to AI."

"We welcome a federal framework that sets consistent safety requirements for frontier AI," Altman said in a post on X. "No amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness."