New U.S. AI chief makes first stop in silicon valley, meets tech titans

Jay Clayton, the newly appointed 'White House AI czar' and former U.S. National Intelligence Director, made his first visit to Silicon Valley on October 7, 2026, meeting with top executives from major AI firms. Among those he met were Jensen Huang of NVIDIA, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Dario Amodei of Anthropic, and Mark Zuckerberg of Meta. This marks Clayton's first direct engagement with industry leaders since taking charge of the federal government's AI initiatives. The meeting follows recent safety concerns over AI models and a series of high-profile incidents that have heightened public fears about AI risks. Clayton emphasized the need for AI development to balance innovation with public safety, stating that models must have control and monitoring mechanisms accepted by both developers and the public. He also defended the use of existing legal frameworks to hold AI companies accountable. During his visit, Clayton also met with Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikhil Arora, with whom he discussed AI safety and regulatory approaches. The visit comes amid growing pressure on the U.S. government to address AI risks following recent events and Trump's push for stricter oversight.