President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration would ban the term “artificial intelligence” in relevant documents, escalating a push to replace the widely used name and its abbreviation, “AI,” with “super intelligence” and “SI.” His announcement follows an executive-branch terminology directive, but does not establish a general ban on the public or private sector using the existing terms.
In an October 27 post on Truth Social, Trump criticized The Wall Street Journal for continuing to use “artificial intelligence.” He argued that his preferred wording better describes the technology and claimed that others were adopting it, or would soon do so. The material accompanying his remarks did not provide evidence of widespread adoption of “SI” as a replacement.
Trump described the existing name as:
“a very bad and inaccurate name,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The announcement builds on an executive order titled “Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence,” signed in late September. The administration’s stated rationale is that the language used by the federal government should reflect the expanding capabilities of modern systems, including their applications in science, medicine and creative work.
The order directs executive departments and agencies to adopt “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports and other non-statutory documents, International Business Times UK reported, citing the order. Its account says the requirement applies only where legally permitted and does not require changes to previously issued regulations, presidential actions, contracts, grants or historical records.
Those limits distinguish the policy from the broader wording of Trump’s social media announcement, which referred to relevant documents and other uses beyond them. An executive-branch naming policy does not itself prohibit newspapers, technology companies, researchers or members of the public from continuing to say “artificial intelligence.”
The directive also calls for proposed legislative language within 60 days. International Business Times UK reported that the president’s science and technology adviser is to submit that proposal to Trump, including recommendations on a federal definition of the replacement terms. Proposed legislation would still require congressional action to become law.
The terminology change also crosses an established technical distinction. Artificial intelligence is the broad field concerned with computer systems performing tasks associated with human intelligence. Superintelligence generally describes a prospective level of capability exceeding human intelligence, rather than serving as a standard synonym for every system currently classified as AI. Renaming existing systems does not, by itself, demonstrate that they have reached that level.
The order initially carries the existing statutory definition of artificial intelligence over to the new terminology, International Business Times UK reported. That leaves federal agencies changing their language while any changes to the underlying legal definition remain a separate question.
Sources: The Hill, tippinsights, Variety, International Business Times UK