Trump tells the UN: AI is now "super intelligence"

The announcement came Tuesday at the General Assembly. President Trump declared the United States is officially changing the term "artificial intelligence" — AI — to "super intelligence," SI. The word "artificial," he said, makes the technology sound fake. The technology itself, he added, is "actually amazing." All U.S. government documents will be updated accordingly, and he hoped the rest of the world would follow suit.

This is not Trump's first naming spree. He previously ordered new labels for the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Superior, the Kennedy Center, and Mount Denali; digital maps duly updated the labels for U.S. users. This time, though, he acknowledged the authority question. "Let's see if I have the power. Maybe I do, maybe I don't, we'll find out pretty soon."

He folded the rebrand into a familiar narrative. The people warning about AI dangers, he said, are the same ones who pushed the "Russia, Russia, Russia hoax," the "Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine hoax," climate change, and open borders. Climate change itself, he noted, was rebranded from "global warming" after the planet cooled instead of warmed, and nobody died in 12 years as predicted.

On the competitive front, Trump insisted the United States now leads China "by a lot" in super intelligence, and he intends to keep the gap wide. He called the technology bigger than the industrial revolution or the internet itself. The administration will encourage development, not restrict it, though the Justice Department is watching closely and has already been activated very aggressively.

Beyond the symbolism, the practical force of the rename is unclear. Trump himself admitted uncertainty about his authority. No indication suggests federal agencies, standards bodies, or private industry are obliged to adopt the new term. For now, the technical and academic communities continue using AI, and it remains an open question whether the initials SI will catch on outside White House memos.