Trump's AI to SI Renaming Sparks Tech Industry Backlash
- •US President Donald Trump proposed renaming 'artificial intelligence' (AI) to 'super intelligence' (SI), claiming AI sounds 'fake' and announcing the change for US government documents.
- •Trump's proposal followed polls on Truth Social where 'super intelligence' emerged as the favorite alternative, despite tech leaders expressing concerns about AI's current capabilities.
- •The renaming comes after AI company CEOs called for federal regulation due to safety concerns, which Trump dismissed as a 'hoax'.
- •Experts like Simon Coghlan and Kokil Jaidka criticize the rebranding as misleading, stating 'super intelligence' typically refers to far more advanced systems than current AI.
- •While some officials like Michael Drager and Ethan Klein have adopted the new term, industry-wide adoption is unlikely due to the term's established meaning in the field.
Key Questions Answered
US President Donald Trump announced that US government documents would replace the term 'artificial intelligence' with 'super intelligence', using the abbreviation 'SI' during a speech at the UN General Assembly on September 22, 2026, because he felt the old term made the technology sound fake.
Tech leaders and researchers largely criticized the rebranding as misleading, noting that 'super intelligence' is a term reserved for advanced systems capable of self-improvement and that the new name exaggerates current technological capabilities.
Before settling on 'super intelligence' after a series of polls on his Truth Social platform, Trump considered alternative names such as 'superior intelligence' and 'extreme intelligence' or 'supreme intelligence'.
