Trump Says He’s Changing Artificial Intelligence to ‘Super Intelligence’ on Government Documents

President Donald Trump gave a completely unhinged speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday where he bragged about his supposed achievements, threatened other countries, and insisted he was a “peacemaker.” The president also declared that he was changing the name of artificial intelligence to “super intelligence” and would make sure SI was used on all U.S. government documents. “From this point forward, all of United States documents and hopefully the world’s, will be changed to use the much more accurate term Super as opposed to Artificial. So it’s Super Intelligence. In other words, welcome to the new world of Super Intelligence, dash SI,” Trump told the assembly (yes, it does seem like he annunciated the emdash before SI while reading directly off the teleprompter). Trump told the UN that using the word artificial “makes it sound fake, but it’s not fake.” But he expressed skepticism that other countries would follow his lead. “Let’s see if I have any power,” said Trump. “Maybe I do and maybe I don’t. We’re gonna find out pretty soon.” Trump has previously put the rebrand to several votes, asking Sept. 19 that user on social media vote between three options: Superior Intelligence (SI) or Extreme Intelligence (EI) or Supreme Intelligence (SI). Trump allowed people to vote on both Truth Social and X, which delivered different results. The term Superior Intelligence won on both platforms but Extreme Intelligence came in second on Truth Social while it was third on X. Trump held another vote between just Superior Intelligence and Extreme intelligence on Sept. 20. Superior Intelligence narrowly won on both X and Truth Social. But Trump was apparently unhappy with Superior Intelligence. On Sept 21., Trump posted to Truth Social and gave people a new option. He asked whether it should be Superior or Super Intelligence. The latter won on the platform, 65% to 35%. Even Trump supporters seem to think the change is unnecessary and stupid. Matt Walsh, a far-right anti-trans activist posted on X on Tuesday: “I am already cringing at the thought of conservatives on this site dutifully calling AI ‘super intelligence’ because Trump just told them to.” In another X post, Walsh called the attempt to rename AI “bizarrely dystopian” as well as “the stupidest thing to focus on right before an election with gas prices through the roof.” The national average for a gallon of gas is currently $4.47, up from $2.98 before Trump started the war with Iran. Diesel prices continue to break new records each day, with the average at $6.52 on Tuesday, according to AAA. Trump’s attempt at renaming AI is also confusing because artificial superintelligence is already a thing. Philosopher Nick Bostrom wrote a book in 2014 called Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies defining it as “any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest.” Trump has an obsession with renaming things, an effort to put his stamp on language like so many authoritarian rulers that have come before him. Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America, the Department of Defense to the Department of War and Lake Ontario to Lake America. Tech companies like Apple and Google have chosen to go along with Trump’s renaming efforts and their maps now show Trump’s preferred names. Trump has rejected calls to regulate AI in any meaningful way, even as concerns about rogue AI agents have dominated the mainstream news in recent weeks. The president insists that any kind of regulation will stop the U.S. from competing with China, despite the fact that leaders at the frontier labs say a slowdown may be necessary to get everyone on the same page safely. Trump is full steam ahead on AI, something he clearly doesn’t understand in any meaningful way. All he knows is that the U.S. stock market is doing well thanks in large part to AI investment. And any sign of weakness in the markets would be devastating, since the average person is already struggling with soaring inflation and stagnant wages. It really is a weird thing to focus on when the average American is suffering. Only time will tell whether Trump’s preferred name for AI will stick. He’s had mixed success with other names. Nobody is calling t Lake America, though some mainstream news outlets have taken to calling the Department of Defense the Department of War.