In an interesting and unexpected twist, US President Donald Trump has given artificial intelligence a new name. President Trump has rebranded AI as “Super Intelligence” or “SI” arguing that the word “artificial” makes the technology sound fake when, in his view, its capabilities are very real and extraordinary.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on September 22, President Trump said the United States would henceforth use the term “Super Intelligence” in its official documents and expressed hope that other countries would follow.
The White House subsequently published the announcement as part of Trump’s UN address. Justifying the new name, President Trump said “The use of the word artificial makes intelligence fake. It makes it sound fake, and it is not fake. ,It’s actually amazing.”
He then declared that “From this point forward, all of United States documents and hopefully the world’s will be changed to use the much more accurate term super, as opposed to artificial.”
Trump’s rebranding reflects his broader position that the United States should encourage the rapid development of AI rather than impose extensive international controls on it.
He explicitly rejected what he called a “globalist scheme” to control AI and said the technology should be watched carefully while its growth is encouraged.
However, the more interesting question is whether changing the name from Artificial Intelligence to Super Intelligence can change how people feel about the technology.
Trump’s argument rests partly on language. “Artificial” can suggest something manufactured or simulated, while “super” suggests something powerful, advanced, and potentially superior. In that sense, the rebranding presents AI less as an imitation of human intelligence and more as a new technological capability.
But the public’s apprehension about AI is not simply caused by its name. People are concerned about job displacement, misinformation, privacy, cybersecurity, autonomous systems, concentration of technological power, and the possibility that increasingly capable systems could behave in ways humans cannot adequately control.
Whether this rebranding will cure the apprehension of the pessimist, only time will tell.
