Trump Renames AI as 'Super Intelligence'
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order instructing every federal agency to refer to artificial intelligence (AI) as "super intelligence" (SI), replacing the terms he considers too "fake."
On Tuesday, Trump posted two pages from the order on his Truth Social account, featuring signatures from six tech leaders: Sundar Pichai (Google), Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Greg Brockman (OpenAI), Elon Musk (xAI), and Jensen Huang (NVIDIA).
The Executive Order
The order is comprehensive, mandating changes in letters, press statements, websites, reports, and policy documents. However, it exempts existing rules, contracts, and grants.
SI, as defined in the order, is based on the current legal definition of AI. The government will no longer recognize the original terms, requiring a proper definition drafted by science adviser Michael Kratsios within 60 days for Congress' review.
Background
Trump first proposed the name change at the UN General Assembly, arguing that 'artificial' made AI sound inauthentic. He then conducted a poll on Truth Social, where 65% of voters favored "super intelligence" over "superior intelligence."
The White House fact sheet explains that the term "artificial" implies that AI merely mimics human thought, a definition attributed to John McCarthy's 1955 proposal for a Dartmouth research workshop. The order credits Americans with naming the field and retires their term.
Geographic Names Board vs. AI Labs
Unlike places like the Gulf of Mexico (renamed Gulf of America in 2025) or Lake Ontario (recently renamed Lake America), no governing body exists for AI technology names. This means universities, courts, and regulators will continue using their preferred terms, while the federal government's official vocabulary now recognizes SI.
The EU's AI Act keeps its title intact, and Canadians still refer to Lake Ontario by its original name. The real impact of this rename may lie in how it influences public perception and policy regarding superintelligent AI systems.