Andrew Ross Sorkin Trolls DNI Clayton for Parroting Trump’s ‘Superintelligence’ Line on CNBC

CNBC’s Squawk Box co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin trolled Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton on Wednesday after the official spent his entire preceding interview repeatedly parroting President Donald Trump’s newly-invented term for artificial intelligence.

Earlier this month, Trump came up with the moniker after running a Truth Social poll to help him pick a new name for what he called the “very ineloquent” new name for AI – “superintelligence.” He later insisted that Chinese President Xi Jinping was a fan and has continued to call AI by the name in recent appearances.

Clayton, however, is apparently all in on the term and repeated the buzzword 7 times throughout his interview as the Squawk Box crew quizzed him on the technology.

Early in Wednesday’s sitdown, after Clayton had already used the term twice, co-host Joe Kernen addressed an Axios report that Trump had floated his DNI as a “good” choice for AI czar.

Jibing at Clayton’s use of Trump’s term, Kernen noted: “You could possibly, apparently, reportedly be AI czar or SI czar – whatever you want to call it.” He added that while the appointment would be a “natural” fit that, in his role as DNI, Clayton was already in charge of many agencies. After a long winded answer, Clayton argued that the role would fall within his current “portfolio” and job of “protecting the American people.”

Calyton continued his rebranding push and cited “superintelligence” during several questions that followed, a move that did not go unnoticed by Sorkin, who chimed in with a question as the interview closed out and Clayton thanked the team for having him on, insisting he welcomed debate around artificial intelligence.

“This is America. This debate about leading in superintelligence, protecting the American people, it’s good for our business leaders, it’s good for our investors, and it’s good for the general public to hear about it,” the DNI said, signing off. “So thank you.”

Sorkin jumped in, as the transition cue music began playing, quipping: “Jay, I got a hard one, I say it half joking, does OpenAI need to change its name?”

Slapping his hand down on the desk in exasperation, Clayton laughed awkwardly and retorted: “I don’t – You know what? Why don’t you ask them, Andrew?

“I think Jay has had enough of us,” co-host Becky Quick laughed.

“I think he has,” Kernen grinned, teasing: “Maybe one more czar question!”

“No, we’ll let you go, Jay,” he added, letting the official off the hook. “Thank you.”

Watch above via CNBC.

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