Von der Leyen and Trump diverge on AI and superintelligence policies
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and United States President Donald Trump staked out sharply contrasting positions on artificial intelligence on September 16 and September 22, 2026,...
- Addressing the European Parliament on September 16, 2026, Ursula von der Leyen highlighted the practical benefits of artificial intelligence in healthcare, specifically citing breast cancer screening.
- Do I want my doctor to have instant access, via AI, to all the necessary data to make the best diagnostic or therapeutic decision?
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and United States President Donald Trump staked out sharply contrasting positions on artificial intelligence on September 16 and September 22, 2026, balancing institutional oversight against sweeping geopolitical repositioning. Speaking before the European Parliament in Strasbourg during her State of the Union address on September 16, 2026, von der Leyen endorsed AI for medical diagnostics while drawing a strict boundary against full automation. Six days later, on September 22, 2026, Trump criticized doomsday predictions surrounding the technology and announced a unilateral terminology shift, declaring that the technology would henceforth be officially designated as Superintelligence in all United States documents.
European Regulatory Approach to Medical AI
Addressing the European Parliament on September 16, 2026, Ursula von der Leyen highlighted the practical benefits of artificial intelligence in healthcare, specifically citing breast cancer screening. According to von der Leyen, mammographies reduce mortality by roughly 30% to 40% among women undergoing the tests, and AI-assisted mammography can identify more cancer cases at an earlier stage.
Do I want my doctor to have instant access, via AI, to all the necessary data to make the best diagnostic or therapeutic decision? Yes, of course. But do I want my doctor to be an AI-assisted robot? No, of course not. I don’t want a robot to tell me whether I have cancer or not.
Ursula von der Leyen This stance underscores the European Union’s push to harness technological gains while maintaining human clinical oversight, even as political figures such as Jordan Bardella watch from the Strasbourg hemicycle ahead of potential shifts in European leadership.
United States Policy Shift and Renaming
Shifting the global debate from a European regulatory framework to American policy, Donald Trump took the podium on September 22, 2026, to dismiss catastrophic warnings regarding advanced computing.
Each major new technology brings challenges. However, the people who said we would all be dead in 12 years due to global warming are the same people who are now saying that AI is going to kill us all, that robots are going to attack us, and that everything is going to be a total disaster.
Donald Trump In the same address, Trump announced that the United States government would officially replace the term artificial intelligence with Superintelligence. Trump argued that using the word artificial makes the technology sound false, whereas it is actually astonishing. The administration mandated that all United States documents transition to using the term Superintelligence.
U.S.-China Bilateral Dialogue on Superintelligence
Following the United States policy announcement, Chinese President Xi Jinping adopted the terminology shift during high-level talks in Washington on Wednesday, September 24, 2026, despite broader geopolitical tensions. The White House detailed the outcome of the discussions, confirming that a United States-China Dialogue on Superintelligence had been established to exchange views on risks and benefits. The two superpowers also agreed to implement a bilateral communication channel for incidents and to officially adopt the acronym SI in place of AI.