The US executive branch is no longer acknowledging the existence of “artificial intelligence.” Going forward, official policy websites, policy documents, and press releases will refer only to “Super Intelligence,” thanks to a new executive order signed by President Donald Trump.
“The word super is the best word of all, and it’s the simplest,” Trump said at an event announcing the launch of America.gov earlier on Tuesday, and said Chinese President Xi Jinping, who visited the White House last week, “loves it,” too. “We don’t want to hear artificial. Because it’s not artificial. It’s very powerful, it’s very brilliant. It’s going to mostly be put to good use and we’ll stop the bad use.” Artificial, he added, “is like the news. Fake news.” He first mentioned plans for the rebrand in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week, aiming to quell fears over AI advancing too quickly and posing a safety risk.
“It’s going to mostly be put to good use and we’ll stop the bad use”
Executive agencies won’t have to change past regulations or documents, but it could still constitute a real (and very strange) shift. Superintelligence is one of several industry terms for particularly powerful versions of artificial intelligence, but the Trump administration is seeking to use the term as a replacement for a broader statutory definition of AI. US officials will be expected not to even acknowledge the use of the terms “artificial intelligence” or “AI” in relevant settings.
Trump signed the executive order after a luncheon he hosted at the White House with tech CEOs and government officials to discuss what he’s now officially calling Super Intelligence. In brief public remarks after the meeting, flanked by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and surrounded by other attendees, Trump called the lunch “very productive,” and “extremely friendly.”
“There’s a belief that there should be tremendous self-regulation,” Trump said. “And we automatically have regulation with the Department of Justice, the FBI, all of that.” On the local level, where tech companies have faced the most hurdles in building out massive data centers needed to run their services, Trump says the firms will “work to make the community happy” by providing resources and economic support they may need. Ultimately, he says, “data centers are going to be very popular.”