Trump pushes to rebrand AI as 'super intelligence' in bid to reshape tech narrative
By KRISTINE FRAZAO | The National News Desk
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 24: This illustration shows ChatGPT open on a computer screen on September 24, 2026, in Melbourne, Australia. Local media reported that an AI agent had "hacked a statistics portal containing private data from Australia's universal healthcare scheme, Medicare." Experts believe this was "the world's first known AI breach of a government system." (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (TNND) — President Donald Trump wants the government to stop using the term “artificial intelligence.” He says the common name is inaccurate and wants to replace it with what he calls “super” intelligence.
Trump posted online that he wants to officially ban the terms “AI” and “artificial intelligence” from all relevant government documents and other materials because he believes the terms are inaccurate. (TNND)
“We're leading everybody with what they called artificial intelligence. But I said it's not artificial. It's, it's really super,” Trump said at an October 14 rally.
The president posted online that he wants to officially ban the terms “AI” and “artificial intelligence” from all relevant documents and other materials because he believes they are inaccurate. The move follows an executive order Trump signed last month. That order called for similar changes in official letters, public messages, websites, reports and policy documents.
On Wednesday, Aalok Mehta, director of the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, discussed the issue in an interview with The National News Desk.
I think this push to rename AI is a recognition that the term has a public sentiment problem. So, AI is very unpopular amongst the general American public. And this is something we've seen before from the administration of trying to rebrand something that is unpopular.
Mehta said the change might not have the effect Trump wants. “In a lot of ways, superintelligence is an even more sort of science fiction sounding word, right? It it it go. It's even farther down the spectrum of things humans have invented that perhaps we can't control,” Mehta said.
The debate is happening as some communities raise concerns about the data centers that power certain AI systems. Leaders in the technology industry are also continuing to warn about possible risks.
Last week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described the seriousness of these risks while speaking at the Stanford Graduate School of Business:
I don't even know what a dramatic enough word to use, but the problem coming towards us, something that we have not, as organizational leaders or countries or individuals, taken seriously.
Altman added, “I no longer think were going to be able to patch all the bugs think we're going to have to completely switch the defense model to sort of using the same technology for sort of a new kind of defense shield.”
Trump can tell federal agencies which terms to use in official communications, but he does not have the legal power to stop people or companies from using the term “artificial intelligence.”
Observers are watching to see how widely the administration replaces these terms in official government documents. Ironically, carrying out the change could require the use of AI tools.