By Tichaona Katsvamutima
US President Donald Trump says he and technology industry leaders have officially changed the name of artificial intelligence to “Super Intelligence,” as he ordered federal agencies to replace “AI” with “SI,” arguing that the word “artificial” no longer reflects the technology’s capabilities.
The directive is contained in an executive order titled “Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence,” which Trump signed on Tuesday and later posted on his official X account.
According to the executive order, federal departments and agencies are directed, to the maximum extent permitted by law, to use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” instead of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents and other non-statutory materials.
The order says the new name is intended to reflect what the Trump administration considers the rapidly advancing capabilities of the technology.
“The extraordinary technologies being pioneered by American innovators far exceed what was envisioned when the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ first came into use,” the order states.
It says modern systems now go beyond simply imitating or automating individual aspects of human intelligence.
“The capabilities of today’s frontier systems do much more than imitate or automate discrete aspects of human intelligence,” the order states.
According to the document posted by Trump, the technology increasingly amplifies human ingenuity and is opening new possibilities across fields including science and medicine.
The order says “Super Intelligence” therefore better reflects what the administration describes as the technology’s “promise, potential, and rapidly advancing capabilities.”
Under the executive order, the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, in consultation with relevant federal agencies, has 60 days to submit proposed legislative language establishing a federal definition of “Super Intelligence” and “SI.”
The order says the proposed legislation should also consider whether the new terminology should modify, expand or supersede the existing statutory definition of artificial intelligence.
However, the document makes clear that the terminology change does not automatically rewrite previously issued regulations, presidential actions, contracts, grants or historical documents.
It also states that implementation must remain consistent with applicable US law and subject to the availability of congressional appropriations.
Trump had announced the new name during his address to the United Nations General Assembly last week, where he argued that the word “artificial” gave a misleading impression of the technology.
“The use of the word artificial makes intelligence fake, it makes it sound fake and it is not fake. It’s actually amazing,” Trump said.
Speaking at a White House event on Tuesday, Trump again explained why he preferred the new terminology.
“This isn’t — this is extreme intelligence. It’s superior intelligence. It’s, uh, supreme also intelligence, but the word super is the best word of all and it’s the simplest,” Trump said.
