Chuck Brooks is the president of Brooks Consulting International and one of Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Experts.
A significant turning point in the development of US technology policy has been reached with the announcement of a new White House Super Intelligence Force, or SIF. The initiative coincides with the rapid convergence of quantum computing, advanced robotics, biotechnology, space systems, advanced networking and other emerging technologies, as well as the advancement of artificial intelligence from chatbots and copilots to autonomous and agentic systems.
The White House announcement states that the new force will coordinate federal engagement with critical infrastructure providers, advanced AI companies, public interest groups, religious organizations and consumers. In addition to Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Department of War Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, President Trump appointed Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to spearhead the initiative. The President and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles are anticipated to receive reports from the group.
But the initiative’s importance goes beyond the jargon used to describe “super intelligence.” Whether the United States can create an institutional framework that can keep up with the acceleration and convergence of emerging technologies is the more crucial question.
As we move into what I have dubbed the “Acceleration Era,” artificial intelligence is increasingly taking on the role of the cognitive layer that links advanced communications, edge computing, cybersecurity, robotics, biotechnology, quantum computing and space systems. The most significant technological advancements of the upcoming decades might not originate from a single technology, but rather from the results of these technologies coming together.
Transitioning From AI to an Intelligence Infrastructure
These days, artificial intelligence is more than just another type of software. It is evolving into a fundamental technology for national security, business, government and science. AI is emerging as the Intelligence Age’s cognitive infrastructure, according to my recent writing. Organizations’ methods for conducting research, analyzing data, making decisions and interacting with machines are evolving due to the shift from traditional machine learning to generative AI, multimodal systems and increasingly autonomous agents.
Particularly crucial is agentic AI. AI agents are becoming more capable of reasoning, interacting with programs, accessing data, writing software, carrying out transactions and coordinating with other systems. This alters the cybersecurity equation while also generating enormous opportunities for productivity and discovery. An autonomous system may be able to function at machine speed, making choices and acting in digital environments far more quickly than a human operator.
This means that the US must view AI as a national intelligence infrastructure rather than just a product or set of applications. By bringing the government, tech firms, operators of vital infrastructure and other stakeholders into a more coordinated dialogue, the Super Intelligence Force has the potential to support that broader vision.
Convergence Is the Next Frontier in Competition
The idea that emerging technologies cannot be seen in a vacuum has been a major theme in my work over the past few years. AI will speed up scientific research. Optimization, materials science, cryptography and drug discovery could all be revolutionized by quantum computing in the future. Navigation and situational awareness could be enhanced by quantum sensing. Digital intelligence will increasingly be translated into physical action by robotics. Communications, navigation, economic activity and national security will all depend even more on space systems. What can be constructed and used will depend on advanced manufacturing and materials.
These technologies complement each other. In my January GovConWire piece on the AI and quantum revolution, I discussed this convergence and made the case that the combination of AI and quantum technologies could drastically alter manufacturing, research and technological exploration.
In more recent work on emerging technology strategies, I have argued that the integration of various technological ecosystems will define the future rather than a single breakthrough. For this reason, a national strategy centered on advanced AI shouldn’t end with AI.
The Super Intelligence Force has the chance to survey the entire field of technology and pose a more comprehensive query: What will happen as advanced networks, biotechnology, autonomous systems, machine intelligence, quantum information and human intelligence become more intertwined? At that point, both the strategic risks and opportunities increase significantly.
Quantum & AI Will Be Intimately Linked
In this discussion, quantum computing merits special attention. The practical applications of quantum technology are now much closer. Quantum computing is progressively shifting from theoretical research to commercial platforms, quantum networking, sensing and increasingly more powerful processors. Cybersecurity, scientific advancement, economic competitiveness and national security are all affected.
Quantum computing and AI might also start to reinforce one another. AI can speed up scientific research, analyze experimental data and optimize quantum algorithms. When sufficiently developed, quantum computing may offer new computational, simulation and optimization capabilities that advance artificial intelligence and other domains.
However, because sufficiently powerful quantum computers have the potential to compromise a large portion of current public-key cryptography, quantum computing poses a significant cybersecurity challenge. For this reason, the US must pursue both the defense and the opportunity at the same time. The administration’s June quantum executive orders are a two-pronged strategy that aims to accelerate both the shift to post-quantum cryptography and U.S. quantum innovation. For the Super Intelligence Force, the lesson is crucial: technological security and leadership are inextricably linked.
The Architecture Must Include Cybersecurity
The attack surface grows with every new technology. This does not imply that innovation should be slowed. This implies that security must be incorporated into the architecture from the start. The interdependence of critical infrastructure, cybersecurity and AI is growing. By evaluating massive amounts of telemetry and spotting anomalies at machine speed, AI can improve defensive cybersecurity. However, the same technology can enable adversaries to perform social engineering, create malicious code, automate reconnaissance and find vulnerabilities.
Choosing between security and innovation is not the solution. Together, they will be designed.
This also holds true for Zero Trust. AI and quantum computing are altering the development of Zero Trust because, as systems grow more autonomous and interconnected, identity, authentication, authorization and continuous verification become even more crucial.
In an AI-driven environment, we need to know not just who is accessing a system, but also which machine, application, AI agent, or autonomous process is acting, what authority it has, what data it can access and whether or not that authority should be maintained. That is the cornerstone of reliable machine intelligence.
The Government Can’t Invent on Its Own
The potential to improve ties between the public and private sectors is arguably the Super Intelligence Force’s most significant opportunity. The combination of universities, national laboratories, startups, venture capital, big tech companies, defense companies and government research institutions makes America’s technology ecosystem exceptionally potent.
Connecting those capabilities is a challenge. In a recent article about the evolution of the federal innovation ecosystem, I made the case that rather than taking place inside institutional silos, the most significant innovations are increasingly happening at the nexus of government, academia and commercial technology.
Here, the same idea holds true. The government has specific missions, research capabilities, datasets and national security requirements. Industry has vast resources for commercial innovation, capital and engineering talent. Basic research is conducted by national laboratories and universities. Established institutions tend to move more slowly than startups.
Instead of duplicating those elements, a successful national strategy should connect them. An intriguing illustration of this more expansive approach is the White House’s recent Genesis Mission. The project aims to speed up research in fields like energy, space, materials science and biology by utilizing AI, scientific datasets, autonomous labs and quantum technologies. More than $5 billion in planned funding for the endeavor was announced by the administration.
The execution of individual programs will determine whether or not they ultimately achieve their goals, but the fundamental idea is crucial: AI can become an engine for scientific discovery rather than merely an application that sits on top of current procedures. That’s a significant change.
The Potential Is Greater Than Just Computing
It is easy to think only of increasingly potent AI models when we discuss super intelligence.
The development of an integrated national technology ecosystem is, in my opinion, the greater opportunity. Imagine AI systems that can analyze scientific literature, plan experiments, operate robotic labs, interpret data, optimize quantum simulations and feed the results back into subsequent experiments.
Imagine using those same skills in cybersecurity, aerospace engineering, drug development, advanced materials, energy systems and climate modeling. A faster computer wouldn’t be the only outcome. It would be a radically different approach to innovation and science. Because of this, I don’t think “How powerful will AI become” is the most crucial question for legislators and tech executives. “When AI converges with every other major technology platform, what new capabilities become possible?” is the question. The frontier is there.
Getting Ready for the Intelligence Age
Advanced AI raises a number of valid concerns, such as cybersecurity, privacy, false information, autonomous decision-making, disruption to the workforce, safety and the potential for systems to behave in ways that their designers did not foresee. Within 120 days, the new federal task force is supposed to analyze both opportunities and risks and report back.
We should pay close attention to those risks. However, risk management in technology shouldn’t turn into pessimism. America has historically profited from combining ambitious scientific research with investment, entrepreneurship and real-world application. Building institutions that can keep up with the rapid advancement of technology is currently a challenge.
Investing in talent is necessary. It entails updating public procurement. It entails enhancing public-private collaborations. It entails promoting basic research while hastening commercialization. It entails constructing robust energy sources and safe digital infrastructure to meet the massive processing demands of AI. It entails switching to post-quantum cryptography and getting ready for quantum computing.
It also entails teaching a generation that is aware of how AI interacts with cybersecurity, quantum science, robotics, biotechnology and other cutting-edge fields. In the end, it’s an ecosystem race. Thus, it is important to consider the establishment of the Super Intelligence Force as a component of a much broader technological revolution.
The US is not the only nation engaged in an AI race. AI, quantum computing, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, robotics, biotechnology, space, energy, cybersecurity and human capital are all competitors in this race.
The interconnectivity of these technologies is growing. I concluded in my recent GovConWire piece about the federal innovation ecosystem that I think is applicable right now: the nation that develops a single game-changing technology won’t necessarily have the decisive advantage. It might belong to the nation that creates the best ecosystem for integrating technologies, bringing concepts from labs into production, protecting them and implementing them widely.
The Super Intelligence Force has that opportunity. It could play a significant role in America’s emerging technology strategy if it can help dismantle technological and bureaucratic silos, improve national cybersecurity, accelerate scientific discovery and establish a framework for the responsible deployment of cutting-edge technologies.
Institutions won’t have to wait for the future to catch up. Intelligence itself is evolving into an infrastructure layer for government, business, science and national security as we move into a new era. Cognitive capabilities will be increasingly provided by AI. New computational, sensing and communications capabilities could be made possible by quantum technologies. Intelligence will gain physical agency through robotics. Those systems will be connected by advanced networks. The trust layer will be supplied by cybersecurity.
Building smarter machines shouldn’t be the only goal. Building a more inventive, resilient and intelligent technological ecosystem around them should be the goal. That is one of the most important technological opportunities facing the United States and the true promise of the Super Intelligence era.
