President Donald Trump is officially banning the terms “AI” and “Artificial Intelligence,” he said Tuesday, escalating his effort to rebrand the technology as “Super Intelligence,” or “SI,” across the executive branch. Researchers, policymakers and technology executives have raised concerns ranging from job displacement, misinformation and cybersecurity threats to the possibility that increasingly capable systems could become difficult for humans to control. The rebranding also comes as some of the industry's most prominent figures issue increasingly stark warnings about the technology's risks.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, warned in September that the future of AI could go “very badly” if companies fail to maintain control as systems become more powerful. Altman said AI safety measures must keep pace with rapidly advancing capabilities and warned that humanity could lose control of the future to AI. He also raised the possibility that the technology could produce a dystopian concentration of power, while stressing that AI must remain under human control and serve people.
Those concerns have been echoed by former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who warned that the rapid pace of AI development heading into 2027 is “pretty scary,” adding to concerns from industry insiders about whether safeguards can keep pace with increasingly powerful systems. Trump's rebranding effort does not itself amount to slowing or restricting development of the technology. Instead, the administration has framed “Super Intelligence” as language intended to emphasize American leadership, innovation and the potential economic benefits of increasingly sophisticated systems.
Trump has argued that “artificial intelligence” is an inaccurate description of the technology and that “super intelligence” better captures its capabilities and potential. His latest Truth Social post called AI “a very bad and inaccurate name” and predicted that “virtually everyone else” would use “SI” soon. His comments build on action taken by his administration in September.
According to the White House, Trump signed an executive order directing the executive branch to replace “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” with “Super Intelligence” and “SI.” The White House says the terminology is intended to underline the administration's focus on innovation, economic growth and U.S. technological leadership. There is a technical distinction between the terms as they have traditionally been used. The scope of Trump 's authority depends heavily on where and how a word is being restricted.
A president generally has broad authority to direct the executive branch, including how executive agencies communicate. Supreme Court's government-speech doctrine also gives governments considerable latitude over their own speech. The Constitution Annotated explains that the government is generally “entitled to say what it wishes” when it is speaking for itself.
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