Trump orders federal government to call AI 'super intelligence'

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order telling the US executive branch to stop using the term "artificial intelligence" in official policy documents, websites and press releases.

Officials are to use "super intelligence" instead.

The new label is meant to cover the same systems currently defined as AI under federal law.

Agencies will not have to rewrite past regulations, but officials are expected to avoid the terms "artificial intelligence" and "AI" from now on.

Trump's science and technology adviser has 60 days to propose a formal federal definition of super intelligence.

'It's not artificial'

"The word super is the best word of all, and it's the simplest," Trump said at an event launching America.gov.

"It's not artificial. It's very powerful, it's very brilliant," he added.

Trump first floated the rebrand in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week.

He framed it as a way to ease fears that the technology is advancing too fast and could pose safety risks.

The State Department had already moved in the same direction.

Earlier in September it told diplomats in its international organisations bureau to use "super intelligence" or "SI" in place of "artificial intelligence".

Tech bosses at the White House

Trump signed the order after hosting tech executives and government officials at a White House lunch.

Executives from Google, Anthropic, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI and xAI signed a separate accord on the technology at the event.

The order is the latest sign of a more hands-on federal approach this year.

In June, Trump signed an executive order setting up voluntary vetting of frontier models, the most advanced AI systems, before their release.

That order also created a federal clearinghouse for AI-related cybersecurity risks, but stopped short of mandatory licensing.