CNET: Trump Order Mandates Federal Agencies Use Term ‘Super Intelligence

The Trump administration issued an executive order mandating that federal agencies replace artificial intelligence with super intelligence in all official communication and policies, CNET reported. The White House framed the rebrand as a way to better capture the technology’s promise and rapidly advancing capabilities amid public concerns over job displacement and human extinction. President Donald Trump stated on Truth Social that anyone refusing to adopt the administration’s preferred term will be treated as an enemy of the White House.

Linguists and Editors Reject the White House Rebrand

Linguists and editorial bodies have pushed back against the administration’s directive. Naomi Susan Baron, a linguist and author of Reader Bot: What Happens When AI Reads and Why It Matters, called the redefinition Pollyannish and dangerous. Emily Bender, a professor in computational linguistics and AI ethics voice, noted that languages belong to their communities rather than top-down political decrees. Within journalism, editorial standards continue to rely on established usage. The AP Stylebook, which added a dedicated artificial intelligence chapter in 2023 and broadly expanded and updated it earlier this year, urges reporters to evaluate technical limitations critically rather than adopting corporate or political hype.

Technical Distinctions Between AI and Superintelligence

Conflating the two terms misrepresents current technological capabilities. In technical circles, superintelligence refers strictly to a hypothetical machine exceeding human cognitive ability, a stage well beyond artificial general intelligence, or AGI. Bender and co-author Alex Hanna wrote in their 2025 book The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want that grouping diverse software under an umbrella term obscures its limitations. The phrase artificial intelligence describes heterogeneous pattern-matching software, robotics, and statistical models rather than a conscious, superior entity.

Tech Leaders Use New Terminology to Attract Investors

Several industry leaders immediately embraced the new terminology. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang referred to data centers as superintelligence factories, and Elon Musk stated he would rename SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI. This linguistic shift aligns with corporate goals to secure federal contracts and boost investor appetite by portraying routine technology as a transformative force governed by voluntary self-regulation. Critics note that the rebranding also deflects public attention away from resource-intensive data centers, infrastructure demands, and rising safety concerns.

Historical Precedents for Political Renaming

The administration’s decree mirrors previous US political renaming campaigns designed to test loyalty or signal ideological stances. During World War I, hamburgers were temporarily called liberty sandwiches due to anti-German sentiment, while congressional cafeterias renamed french fries freedom fries in 2003 to protest France’s position on the Iraq war. Past executive orders also directed agencies to rename geographic features like the Gulf of America and Lake America, prompting compliance from major tech firms such as Google and Apple.

Unresolved Questions Surrounding Federal Enforcement

Professional journalistic outlets and academic researchers continue to evaluate whether federal agencies will penalize organizations that maintain standard technical terminology.

More on this story: Trump Issues Executive Order to Rename Artificial Intelligence