Trump orders AI rebrand as "super intelligence"
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President Trump speaks at the United Nations General Assembly on September 22, 2026. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images.
President Trump said Tuesday he is directing "all United States documents" to refer to AI as "super intelligence."
Why it matters: Trump used his United Nations General Assembly speech to dismiss AI safety warnings and frame the race to beat China as an existential, must-win competition.
What they're saying: Trump said Tuesday that using the word "artificial" makes AI "sound fake and it is not fake."
- "It's actually amazing, but we have to be careful," he said, adding that the U.S. "totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control …artificial intelligence."
- "From this point forward, all of United States documents and hopefully the world's will be changed to use the much more accurate term "super" as opposed to artificial. So it's super intelligence."
- "I'm not going to stifle growth of something that will be bigger than the industrial revolution…we will only encourage super intelligence. We're going to encourage it, not rein it in."
Between the lines: Superintelligence already refers to intelligence that surpasses human capabilities.
- It's unclear whether Trump intended to invoke that existing concept. The White House did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment on the matter.
Catch up quick: Trump has pushed to rebrand AI in recent days amid protests over data centers and concerns about job displacement.
- Concerns intensified after researchers at Anthropic and OpenAI warned that the technology is growing exponentially smarter in ways they do not fully understand themselves. One researcher even quipped that there is a greater than 10% chance AI destroys humanity.
- Eager to keep AI advancements rolling, Trump recently posted multiple polls asking his Truth Social followers how they wanted to rebrand the technology. In at least one poll, "superior intelligence" won.
- He also recently called for the establishment of a new "AI Force," setting off a mad dash for a Silicon Valley whisperer to serve as the next AI czar.
State of play: On Tuesday, Trump again dismissed doomsday warnings about AI, comparing them to a "hoax" like climate change and the "Russia, Russia, Russia hoax."
- "The very same people who said we'll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming-a name since reborn to climate change because the planet was cooling, not warming-and nobody was dead.
- "These are the same people that 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."
The bottom line: Trump is all in on U.S. dominance in AI — despite advisers' warnings that public distrust of the technology could hurt Republicans in the midterms.
Go deeper: Trump's call for "AI Force" sets off scramble for new AI czar
