President Donald Trump wants to rename artificial intelligence. Last week he signed an executive order that bans the term “AI” wherever possible and replaces it with “super intelligence.” According to The Verge AI, federal agencies are already following the order, and several of the industry’s biggest names have gone along with it. The Verge’s Adi Robertson argues the rebrand could backfire on Trump and on the industry he’s trying to help.
⚡ The Quick Version
- What happened: In a UN speech last month, Trump said “the use of the word artificial makes intelligence fake.” He then signed an executive order that limits use of the term “AI.”
- What changed: The Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) is now the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence (CAISSI).
- The escalation: On Thursday, Trump said the White House considers anyone who uses “Artificial Intelligence” instead of “Super Intelligence” to be “THE ENEMY!”
- Who’s on board: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Jensen Huang and Sam Altman have all praised or adopted the term.
- The catch: The name causes legal, technical and political confusion.
🏛️ How Fast It’s Moving
Government agencies have moved quickly. CAISI was already a rebrand of the AI Safety Institute, and now it has been renamed again. Justice Department press releases now use the phrase too. One recent release charged a man who flooded streaming platforms with AI-generated songs with “Super Intelligence-Assisted Music Streaming Fraud.”
The tech leaders backed it just as fast. Musk promised to rename SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI. Bezos said he likes the change because “artificial is not a very flattering thing.” Altman praised the term but said OpenAI won’t change its name.
The Verge also notes that “artificial” is turning into Trump’s new insult. He plans to stop saying “fake news media” and call the press “artificial media” instead. At an October 5th rally, he also called concerns about war driving up prices “just artificial.”
🧠 Why the Name Is a Problem
The real issue is technical. “Superintelligence” (one word) already means something specific. Nick Bostrom popularized it in his 2014 book, and it describes a future AI that could surpass human thinking. It’s one of several labels for whatever comes after today’s systems, alongside artificial general intelligence (AGI).
If every chatbot and music generator now counts as “super intelligence,” the word stops meaning anything. That causes real trouble for companies:
- Meta and Microsoft have built their roadmaps around superintelligence. They get a sudden branding boost, but they also lose the term they’d planned to use for their next big products.
- Marketing teams can’t sell a flashy new model as “superintelligent” when the same word now covers years-old tools.
- Researchers and safety teams lose a clear way to talk about the risks of very advanced systems.
⚖️ The Legal and Political Snags
An executive order only reaches the executive branch. Trump can’t stop Congress from saying “artificial intelligence,” and the phrase already appears in existing laws, including his own Take It Down Act. Agencies will still have to cite those laws in court using their actual wording.
The politics get messy too. Congressional Republicans will have to decide whether to adopt a term many people find confusing. As The Verge notes, the term also comes with the baggage of Trump’s fairly unpopular pro-industry, anti-regulation stance. Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders already uses the older meaning of the word. In early September he cosponsored the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act to restrict powerful AI. So the same phrase now appears in both a push to speed up AI and a bill to restrict it.
📉 Why It Probably Won’t Stick
Robertson’s point is sharp. Trump’s word games usually work when they’re catchy, like “Little Marco” or “fake news.” “Super intelligence” just sounds like a euphemism. Many Americans have concrete complaints about AI, especially data centers, and calling the technology “super” doesn’t address any of them.
I think the bigger risk falls on the industry. AI companies need public trust, and a rebrand forced on them by executive order makes it look like they’re dodging their problems rather than fixing them.
🔭 What to Watch
- Whether federal contracts and grant applications start requiring “SI” language
- How the courts handle agencies citing laws that say “artificial intelligence”
- Whether AI labs quietly drop “superintelligence” from their own product messaging
- How congressional Republicans word upcoming AI bills
For teams that sell to the federal government, the practical step is simple: check your proposal language now. Everyone else can keep saying “AI.” The Verge AI has the full analysis.