The 'Super Intelligence' Pivot: A Loyalty Test for Big Tech
AI-generated image · US National Wire
President Trump's executive order to rename artificial intelligence is being viewed as a calculated power play that the industry's most powerful executives failed to resist.
President Donald J. Trump has issued an executive order officially banning the term "artificial intelligence" in government usage, replacing it with the term "Super Intelligence," as Wired first reported. The move follows a September 23 speech at the United Nations where Trump expressed a distaste for the word "artificial," arguing that it implies intelligence is "fake," which he asserted it is not.
According to Wired, the formal shift occurred following a White House lunch with the leaders of the nation's most prominent AI firms. Despite the fact that the term artificial intelligence has been the industry standard since being coined by John McCarthy during a 1957 meeting at Dartmouth College, the executives in attendance did not object to the president's mandate. Those present included Jeff Bezos, Jensen Huang, Dario Amodei, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Greg Brockman, Alex Karp, and Elon Musk.
Jacob Weisberg, author of *Profiles in Cowardice: A Study of Collaboration in the Trump Era*, characterizes the event as a "classic Trump loyalty test." Weisberg suggests the mandate was designed to determine if powerful figures would demean themselves to avoid presidential wrath and secure favor. In a post-lunch press gaggle, Trump reinforced this narrative, claiming the name change was supported by "the biggest, the smartest, the greatest people anywhere in the world."
While some suggest the industry may welcome a rebrand of a term that has become toxic, the shift lacks scientific grounding. Philosopher Nick Bostrom, who popularized the term "superintelligence" in his own book, told Wired that the change is "awkward." Bostrom explained that "superintelligence" specifically refers to systems that greatly surpass all human brains, whereas "AI" encompasses a broad range of systems, including early LLMs, spell checkers, and 1970s chess engines.
Despite the executive order, some companies maintain a complex relationship with the new terminology. Wired notes that Mark Zuckerberg recently established a Superintelligence Lab, yet Meta continues to market "Meta AI" and "AI glasses." Similarly, Satya Nadella previously mentioned a preference for the term "different intelligence," though he has continued to use "AI."
Wired reached out to Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, Meta, Amazon, OpenAI, and xAI to ask if they would update product names, research papers, and communications to align with the order. OpenAI and xAI were specifically asked if they would change their company names. As of the report's publication, none of the companies had responded.