White House Unveils New Cabinet Post: Guardrail-in-Chief, a Job Only Trump Can Hold
The position's entire job description is signing off on AI contracts for people he already knows personally.
The administration announced Thursday the creation of a new permanent office, the Guardrail-in-Chief, whose occupant is responsible for all federal oversight of artificial intelligence. The position does not require Senate confirmation, a staff, or a desk, since its only function is a signature.
According to the office's newly drafted charter, the Guardrail-in-Chief reviews every AI-related government contract personally, a process officials say typically takes under a minute when the applicant is a relative or longtime friend of the officeholder, and considerably longer otherwise.
"We think of it less as a bottleneck and more as a very small, very confident committee," said a spokesperson for the newly formed office, who described the review process as "rigorous in spirit."
Critics have asked whether a single person can meaningfully regulate an entire industry. The office responded by noting that the position comes with a designated chair and that the chair is, in fact, load-bearing.
As of this week, the office has approved several contracts and denied none, a record it attributes to what it calls a uniquely thorough vetting process rather than to the small number of applicants who are also personal acquaintances of the reviewer.