A September executive order already tells federal officials to say Super Intelligence. Now Trump says he will ban the term AI outright. Here is what has changed so far.
President Trump wants artificial intelligence called Super Intelligence. A September 29 executive order tells federal officials to avoid the term AI wherever possible, and in late October he posted that he will soon officially ban it in relevant documents.
Changes are already visible. The federal AI standards office is now the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence, and Justice Department press releases use the new phrase.
Critics note superintelligence already meant something else: future AI smarter than humans. For most people nothing changes yet, but the label comes with a push for faster AI development and less regulation.
The White House wants you to stop saying AI. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on September 29 telling federal officials to use “Super Intelligence” instead of artificial intelligence wherever they can, and in late October he went further, posting on Truth Social that he will soon officially ban the term.
Why does a name matter? Because the words in laws, contracts and safety rules decide what gets regulated and how. The rebrand also comes packaged with a policy stance: Trump says AI safety risks are overblown and wants US companies to build faster, including more data centers. If you have worries about AI, from your power bill to your job, the new label is part of an argument about whether those worries deserve attention.
Trump’s case for the AI rebranding to super intelligence is that the word artificial makes the technology sound fake. He said as much in a speech at the United Nations in September and promised to rename it. The executive order followed.
The push came after an industry debate in September about slowing the pace of frontier AI development, the most powerful models. Trump took the opposite view: speed up. He has called building more data centers a very popular move, although polling suggests otherwise.
He has also turned “artificial” into an insult. He said he would retire his favorite phrase for the press, fake news media, in favor of artificial media, and at an October 5 rally he brushed off concerns that war was pushing prices up as just artificial.
The changes inside the government have been quick. The Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), which was itself a renamed version of the AI Safety Institute, is now the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence, or CAISSI.
Justice Department press releases have started using the phrase too. One described a man who flooded streaming services with AI-generated songs between 2017 and 2024 as committing Super Intelligence-Assisted Music Streaming Fraud.
Trump has also said publicly that the White House views anyone using the term artificial intelligence, rather than his preferred name, as the enemy.
Yesterday at the White House, leaders from across our industry came together to sign the White House Accord on Super Intelligence.
The principle is simple: the companies building this technology have the primary responsibility to develop and deploy it safely, and to be… pic.twitter.com/RGMDYs9bhs
— Jensen Huang (@JensenHuang) September 30, 2026
Many of the industry’s biggest names have gone along. Elon Musk says he will rename SpaceX’s AI division from SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI. Jeff Bezos said he likes the change because artificial is not a flattering word. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang has adopted the term as well.
Reports differ on Sam Altman. One account says the OpenAI chief praised the name while saying OpenAI will not change its own; another says he has not acknowledged the two-word version at all, though he has written about superintelligence, a different idea.
The commitment has slipped at times. Musk used the phrase AI data centers in a post on X days before Trump’s latest warning. His late-October post took aim at The Wall Street Journal for still calling the technology artificial intelligence.
There is a terminology problem. Superintelligence, written as one word, is an older idea popularized by philosopher Nick Bostrom’s 2014 book. It means future AI that could surpass human thinking, not everyday tools like chatbots or music generators. Calling all of AI super intelligence blurs the two.
That cuts both ways for the industry. Companies such as Meta and Microsoft that already talk about superintelligence might welcome the attention, and some in tech may want a fresh image as public opinion turns against AI. But if every app is super intelligence, the label loses its punch for genuinely new products.
There are legal limits too. Trump cannot stop Congress from using the term artificial intelligence, and it already appears in existing laws, such as the Take It Down Act, that agencies must cite in court. He cannot force journalists to use his phrase either. A formal ban would likely need some kind of enforcement mechanism added to the September order.
Adding to the confusion, Sen. Bernie Sanders cosponsored a bill in early September called the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which uses the older meaning to restrict the most powerful AI.
In the short term, very little changes in your daily life. The apps on your phone will not rename themselves, and companies outside government can call their products what they like.
Where you may notice it is in official communication: government websites, press releases, safety guidance and possibly federal contracts. If you follow AI policy, it helps to know that Super Intelligence in a federal document now usually just means AI, not the far-future technology the word used to describe.
The bigger question is the policy behind the name. Trump’s stance favors faster development, more data centers and less industry self-regulation. Whether Congress adopts the new term, or the lighter-touch approach that comes with it, is the next thing to watch.
Inside the federal government, yes. A September 29 executive order tells officials to use Super Intelligence where possible. Outside government, nobody is required to change.
He has said he will ban it in relevant documents, but he cannot bar Congress or the press from using it, and it is written into existing laws.
It is the new name for the federal Center for AI Standards and Innovation, now the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence.
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