President-elect Donald Trump is likely to create a new White House post to oversee federal policies and governmental use of artificial intelligence, according to a report Monday.
The proposed AI czar would be selected with help from billionaire Trump confidant Elon Musk, who owns an AI company, and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Axios said, citing sources on Trump's transition team.
Trump recently appointed both men to lead a new, independent Department of Government Efficiency. The AI czar would reportedly work with DOGE to root out waste, fraud and abuse in government programs, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
The federal government has a pressing need for AI and the new supervisor would likely work with various agency officials tasked with putting the technology to use under terms of an executive order signed by President Joe Biden, Axios said.
Musk has publicly clashed with rival tech CEOs, including OpenAI's Sam Altman and Google's Sundar Pichai, raising concerns that Musk may exploit his relationship with Trump to benefit his AIx and other companies, according to Axios.
It's not certain if Trump will go ahead with the plan for an AI czar and the job could be combined with one to oversee cryptocurrency policy, Axios said.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that Trump's transition team was vetting candidates for that role, which could involve leading a small staff and serving as a liaison between the White House, Congress and various agencies with jurisdiction over cryptocurrencies.
Trump has sold several series of digital trading cards and is the "chief crypto advocate" for his family's World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency venture, which has sold more than 3.5 billion WLFI tokens, according to its website, which features his image on its homepage and the page for making purchases.
He's also pledged to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the planet" and his election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this month pushed the price of Bitcoin to record highs.
