US President Donald Trump (pictured) appointed Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton as his administration’s AI czar as part of an effort to coordinate the government’s initiative across the sector.

In a social media post, Trump stated Clayton will lead the newly formed Super Intelligence Force (SIF) to coordinate “the effort of the Federal Government to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence, which many say is bigger than the Industrial Revolution”.

Trump recently rebranded AI as “super intelligence” by signing an executive order directing all federal agencies, public communications, websites, and policy documents to use the new name.

He said SIF will oversee the federal government’s engagement with consumers, public interest groups, religious organisations, critical infrastructure providers, and super Intelligence companies.

The President has continued to downplay the potential impact AI could pose to humanity, arguing a recent pact signed by some of the top AI companies to self-regulate their efforts is sufficient.

The Wall Street Journal reported Clayton’s panel will review AI-related risks and current government mechanisms for breaches, hacks, and other related incidents while recommending ways to strengthen the government’s response capabilities using existing authorities.

Trump explained SIF will report directly to him and his Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles.

Musk rebrands
Elon Musk posted on X stating he was renaming SpaceX’s AI division to SpaceXSI to follow Trump’s lead on the term super intelligence.

“Yes, we ​will make that change,” he ​replied to a user on X asking ⁠him about the possibility of ​renaming SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI.

The post Trump names super intelligence czar; Musk rebrands AI unit appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Former Verizon and Ericsson chief Hans Vestberg (pictured) was named senior adviser at investment bank Evercore to provide technology insights to its customers.

The US independent investment bank provides strategic and financial advice to boards of directors, management teams and shareholders on M&A, capital structure, restructurings and strategic shareholder consulting.

Evercore chair and CEO John Weinberg said Vestberg’s decades of leadership experience in global telecommunications, along with his knowledge of technology, international markets and complex strategic matters, “will further strengthen the advice and insight we provide to our clients”.

The executive was replaced as Verizon CEO in October 2025 after being in charge for more than seven years.

Earlier in his career he spent more than 25 years at Ericsson, including a stint of more than six years as CEO.

In February, he was appointed a senior adviser to AI data centre infrastructure company Digipower X to help the company with its expansion plans.

The post Former Verizon CEO Vestberg joins Evercore as senior adviser appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen reportedly cast doubt on whether AI companies would honour a voluntary safety pledge agreed after a meeting with US President Donald Trump last week.

Haugen told CNBC OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Google needed to “step up and comply” with the AI agreement.

“The history of tech companies engaging with regulation is: Often they will follow the exact written statement when we are dealing with very flexible systems,” Haugen told CNBC.

She questioned whether the companies would follow the “spirit of the rules” or exploit conduct that was not expressly prohibited to “go around the end of the fence”.

Haugen pointed to Anthropic and CEO Dario Amodei’s support for independent auditors as evidence companies were addressing safety more proactively as concerns about AI posing an existential risk intensified.

“I think that is an acknowledgement that at least Dario knows that if you’re given the space to cut corners, even the angels among us begin to cut corners,” Haugen told CNBC.

In 2021, Haugen, who previously worked as a product manager on Facebook’s civic misinformation team, provided internal documents to the Wall Street Journal, prompting a series of reports known as The Facebook Files.

The documents included evidence the company knew its platforms were harming teenagers’ mental health.

The post AI firms urged to honour US safety pledge appeared first on Mobile World Live.

MobileX beefed up its executive team by hiring Raju Datla (pictured) as its CFO, which followed special purpose acquisition company CONX taking a controlling stake in the MVNO in August.

The company stated Datla brings more than 25 years of experience across technology, finance and business strategy. Prior to MobileX, he served as CFO of RedCloud Holdings, where he led finance, capital markets and the financial execution of the company’s global expansion.

His career stops also include serving as CSO at Tillman Fiber and as CFO and co-founder of NxtGen Datacenter & Cloud Technologies.

Earlier in his career, he worked at Deutsche Bank, advising technology media and telecommunications companies on more than $12 billion in M&A, debt and equity transactions.

Datla will work with founder and CEO Peter Adderton to lead funding, partnerships and financial strategy.

“MobileX is at a point where we’re not just scaling what we’ve built; we’re expanding what the platform can become,” Adderton stated while adding Datla “understands both the technology and the financial strategy needed to support that ambition”.

Under its new ownership structure with Charlie Ergen-controlled CONX, MobileX launched its first hybrid retail wireless model with CallSign Mobile in September.

The post MobileX names Datla as CFO appeared first on Mobile World Live.

Ghana awarded 5G spectrum licences to Telecel Group and MTN’s local unit, ending the exclusive wholesale-network model previously used for the country’s 5G rollout, Bloomberg reported.

The exclusivity previously belonged to Next-Gen Infrastructure Company (NGIC), a joint venture (JV) combining Reliance Industries’ Radisys unit, Tech Mahindra, Nokia, and the Ghanaian government, alongside local partners Telecel and AT Ghana.

The JV aimed to reproduce India’s low-cost mobile data model by allowing operators to share infrastructure, but rollout delays prevented it from meeting its targets. Ghana’s government cancelled NGIC’s concession years before its scheduled expiry in 2034 and moved to direct competitive bidding.

Under the new arrangement, Telecel and MTN will build out their own independent networks.

“We plan to launch the service in December this year on our own network,” Telecel CEO Moh Damush told Bloomberg.

Ghana had 49 operational 5G sites earlier this year, compared with a target of 1,200 by 2027. The new licensing model allows established operators to use their existing network footprints to expand coverage. A filing on the Accra bourse showed MTN secured two lots of 700MHz spectrum and three in the 3GHz band, with each 15-year licence priced at about $100 million.

The post Ghana splits 5G licences between Telecel, MTN appeared first on Mobile World Live.