Donald Trump signed an executive order this Tuesday requiring federal government departments and agencies to replace the terms "artificial intelligence" and "AI" with "superintelligence" and "SI" in official communications covered by the measure.
The document, titled “Inaugurating the Era of Superintelligence”, was published on the White House website this September 29.
The decision was also announced by Trump to the press.
Why does Trump want to change the name?
The order argues that current technologies have surpassed the original vision of the field.
"The capabilities of today's cutting-edge systems go far beyond merely imitating or automating specific aspects of human intelligence," the text notes.
Based on that reasoning, it concludes that “the term 'Superintelligence' more accurately describes the promise, potential, and rapidly advancing capabilities of these technologies.”
During the meeting with tech executives at the White House, Trump was more straightforward: “We will sign a document to change the name of ‘artificial intelligence,’ because it is not artificial; we all agree on that,” he stated.
At the conclusion of the meeting, while speaking to the press, Elon Musk had a slip of the tongue when referring to the newly named superintelligence, although he quickly corrected himself amidst laughter.
What does the executive order say exactly?
The Administration's policy, according to the text itself, states that "to the extent permitted by law, the executive power shall use the terms 'Superintelligence' and 'SI' instead of 'Artificial Intelligence' and 'AI', and shall not recognize the use of the latter in any applicable context."
The measure applies to official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents of the executive branch, but does not require modifications to regulations, presidential actions, contracts, grants, or other historical documents already issued.
The order also sets a deadline of 60 days for the President's Assistant for Science and Technology, in consultation with other agencies, to present the President with a legislative proposal aimed at establishing a federal definition of the terms "superintelligence" and "AI".
On September 19, Trump had launched a survey on Truth Social to change the name of AI, with options like "Superior Intelligence" or "Extreme Intelligence."
A week later, during the UN General Assembly, he announced the change and argued that the term "artificial" made the technology "seem fake".
According to The Associated Press, the State Department had already instructed its diplomats to use the new term before the order was signed this Tuesday.
The technology summit and the voluntary agreement
The signing took place at the end of a working lunch attended by approximately two dozen executives from the technology sector, including Sundar Pichai (Google), Elon Musk (xAI), Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Jensen Huang (Nvidia), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), and Satya Nadella (Microsoft).
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, did not attend the meeting, although the company was represented by its president, Greg Brockman.
At the end of the meeting, Trump and several executives signed a voluntary security agreement that the president described as "morally binding" and likened to a constitution: "It's almost like a constitution," he said.
However, the agreement is not legally binding.
According to EFE, the agreement establishes four layers of controls: internal cybersecurity mechanisms, internal oversight teams, independent external auditors, and independent committees within the boards of directors.
Expert Critiques and Political Context
The decision has not been without its criticisms.
Pedro Domingos from the University of Washington noted that referring to current AI as "superintelligence" is misleading.
Simon Coghlan from the University of Melbourne warned that in academic research, that term is used to describe a hypothetical system capable of vastly surpassing human intellectual capacities, a condition that current models do not meet.
The measure comes six weeks before the midterm elections, in which Trump and the Republicans are seeking to maintain their majority in Congress.
The meeting also took place amid the debate on the regulation and safety of artificial intelligence, after various leaders and experts in the field called for greater safeguards for the development of increasingly advanced systems.
Dario Amodei has warned about the risks that could arise from poorly managed AI, while Sam Altman has also publicly expressed concern about the possibility of losing control over sufficiently advanced artificial intelligence systems.
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