Scott Bessent emerges as the likely AI czar, concentrating technology policy inside economic diplomacy

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is emerging as the frontrunner for President Trump’s new AI czar position, according to three people who spoke with Semafor. The selection has not been announced, and the administration still has not defined the office’s legal authority, budget or relationship to existing regulators.

Bessent is already central to the administration’s AI diplomacy. He and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng have begun a dialogue on AI safety and national security ahead of Trump’s meeting with Xi Jinping. Putting him in charge would link model policy to export controls, investment, financial stability and trade negotiations rather than create a technically focused safety regulator.

That integration could make the role powerful even without a new agency: Treasury can influence capital flows and sanctions, while Bessent has direct access to foreign economic counterparts. It could also subordinate independent evaluation and civil-rights questions to the administration’s competition-with-China agenda. Until the White House specifies powers and accountability, the important new fact is the prospective officeholder—not yet an institution capable of acting.