“Trump renames AI as ‘Super Intelligence’ in new executive order”
That’s a real headline from an NBC News live-blog article.
On September 29, President Trump signed an executive order, “Inaugurating The Era of Super Intelligence,” telling executive-branch agencies to use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” instead of “artificial intelligence” and “AI” in official correspondence, websites, and policy documents. It’s narrower than it sounds: the order only covers non-statutory federal paperwork, and it explicitly says “Super Intelligence” carries the exact same legal meaning as the existing statutory definition of artificial intelligence, so nothing about the technology itself changes. It also doesn’t bind anyone outside the executive branch — tech executives who’d just had lunch with Trump signed a separate, voluntary safety pledge, and Anthropic’s CEO kept right on saying “AI” to reporters minutes later (Elon Musk was the lone exception, correcting himself mid-sentence). Marketing and tech experts also note the term “superintelligence” already has its own, very different meaning in AI research — a hypothetical system that outthinks humans at everything — which is part of why few expect the rebrand to stick.
Did you catch this one, and what would you have put in the headline instead?
Leave a comment