President Donald Trump orders rebranding of artificial intelligence as Super Intelligence: ‘It’s not artificial,’ he says
President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing every executive branch department and agency to replace “artificial intelligence” and “AI” with “Super Intelligence” and “SI.” The order, titled “Inaugurating The Era Of Super Intelligence,” covers official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents and other non-statutory materials.
According to the White House, the order tells agencies to “no longer acknowledge” the older terms. It applies “to the maximum extent permitted by law,” meaning federal statutes can still use “artificial intelligence.”
What the order does
A White House fact sheet says the new name reflects a “continuously advancing technological frontier.” It argues that the term “artificial intelligence” wrongly implies that the technology only imitates or automates human intelligence.
Agencies do not have to revise contracts, grants, regulations, presidential actions or other previously issued documents. Until the president or Congress acts, “Super Intelligence” legally refers to the same technologies that federal law defines as artificial intelligence under Section 9401(3) of Title 15 of the U.S. Code.
The order also directs the assistant to the president for science and technology to draft a formal federal definition of “Super Intelligence” within 60 days. The official must determine whether the new definition should expand or replace the existing statutory definition and identify any additional executive action needed. The order does not establish a new regulatory framework for the industry.
Donald Trump’s remarks at the White House
Trump told reporters at the White House on September 29 that the change is official.
“It’s not artificial — we all agree on that,” he said. He also said the U.S. holds “a very big lead” over other nations, including China, and vowed to maintain it.
The signing followed a lunch in the East Room for nearly 20 technology leaders. Attendees included House Speaker Mike Johnson, Vice President J.D. Vance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Trump also unveiled America.gov, a government website powered by AI.
The United Nations announcement
Trump first announced the change a week earlier, on September 22, during his address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York. He said “all of United States documents and hopefully the world’s” would switch to the “more accurate” term “super” instead of “artificial.”
He told delegates that the word “artificial” makes the technology sound fake. “It is not fake. It’s actually amazing,” he said.
Trump also rejected international efforts to regulate the technology. The United States “totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme” to control AI, he said. He compared warnings from AI safety advocates with earlier warnings about climate change and said he will not stifle the growth of a technology he described as bigger than the Industrial Revolution.
Ahead of the speech, Trump asked followers on Truth Social to vote on possible new names, including “Superior Intelligence,” “Extreme Intelligence” and “Supreme Intelligence.” After a series of polls, “Super iItelligence” won.
Reaction from the industry
Mark Zuckerberg called the accord a “start” that the “whole industry could come to” at a press conference after the meeting.
Dario Amodei, whose relationship with the White House has been uneasy, told reporters after the signing that the group could “win safely.”
The accord came weeks after Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk called for a slowdown in AI development, a position Trump rejected. Trump has called concerns about AI oversight a “hoax.”
Why experts say the term is misleading
Researchers say “superintelligence” already has a specific meaning. The concept is often associated with philosopher Nick Bostrom, who described it more than a decade ago as an intellect that surpasses humans in every way. Such a system remains hypothetical. The White House did not immediately answer questions about whether Trump intended to invoke that concept.
Simon Coghlan, a digital ethics lecturer at the University of Melbourne said that the rebrand is “misleading.” He said superintelligence typically refers to a system capable of improving itself.
“I doubt ‘SI’ will stick, in part because it exaggerates the current capacities of AI,” he said.
Ben Leong, a computer science lecturer at the National University of Singapore said that he expects professionals to reserve “SI” for a higher level of capability.
Kokil Jaidka, a computer scientist, said the name “borrows the prestige” of a term researchers reserve for a much larger leap.
Pedro Domingos, a University of Washington computer science professor, said that current models are years away from that milestone. “Most AI is not superintelligence — it’s just different intelligence,” he said. He argued that the name change could fuel public fear.
“If you want to maximize the backlash against AI, rename it Superior Intelligence,” he said.
Domingos also suggested that U.S. labs might welcome the branding because it emphasizes their capabilities. “It’s like just marketing,” he said. He predicted that many people in the field will respond by using “artificial intelligence” even more.