Trump is renaming another thing – and even his supporters are “already cringing”

Donald Trump went to the United Nations with wars, diplomacy and America’s place in the world filling his agenda.

Artificial intelligence also made the cut.

Rather than simply outlining how Washington intends to handle the rapidly advancing technology, however, Trump arrived with a branding exercise of his own. AI, he announced, should no longer be called artificial intelligence.

Trump prefers “super intelligence” — or SI — and wants the new terminology used across US government documents.

Reaction did not come exclusively from his usual political opponents. Conservative commentator Matt Walsh joined the mockery, describing Trump’s proposal as “bizarrely dystopian.”

Trump thinks ‘artificial’ makes AI sound fake

Speaking before the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump combined his proposed name change with a broader rejection of international regulation.

“The United States also totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control for the artificial intelligence being spoken of so much now, here and after officially called super intelligence,” Trump said.

His problem with the existing name came down to one particular word.

“The use of the word artificial makes intelligence fake. It makes it sound fake, and it is not fake. It’s actually amazing, but we have to be careful,” Trump said.

Then came the rebrand.

“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.”

Trump appeared willing to acknowledge that his new label might not immediately conquer the world.

“SI, let’s see if that goes. It sounds much better. It is much better, and it’s much more accurate. Let’s see if I have any power. Maybe I do, and maybe I don’t. We’re gonna find out pretty soon.”

AI already has a meaning for ‘superintelligence’

Trump’s terminology creates one rather significant complication.

“Superintelligence” is already used within discussions of artificial intelligence to describe intelligence that surpasses human capabilities. Axios noted that the established meaning is considerably narrower than simply using the phrase as a replacement for all AI.

Whether Trump intended to invoke that technical concept was unclear.

No immediate clarification from the White House accompanied his UN remarks, according to Axios, and it was not immediately clear whether a formal executive order would follow the announcement.

Trump is not interested in putting the brakes on AI

Vocabulary was only part of Trump’s message.

Washington should resist broad international attempts to control AI, he argued, while American companies should be allowed to keep pushing the technology forward.

“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.”

Trump nevertheless said the government would keep an eye on the industry.

“We’re going to watch it closely through the Department of Justice,” he said.

“The United States leads the world in super intelligence and we’ll continue to do so safely and responsibly.”

His comments came amid a growing debate over AI safety, regulation and the possibility that increasingly capable systems could pose serious risks. Trump has repeatedly pushed back against calls for tougher restrictions, favoring what he has described as a light-touch approach.

Matt Walsh is not buying the rebrand

Mockery of Trump’s proposal soon arrived from a perhaps less predictable direction.

Walsh, a prominent conservative commentator and Trump supporter, complained about the prospect of conservatives dutifully adopting the president’s preferred terminology.

“I am already cringing at the thought of conservatives on this site dutifully calling AI ‘super intelligence’ because Trump just told them to,” Walsh wrote on X.

His criticism did not stop there.

Walsh described the rebranding effort as “bizarrely dystopian” and “the stupidest thing to focus on right before an election with gas prices through the roof.”

Hosts of ABC’s The View also ridiculed the proposal the following day, joking that “super intelligence was not in the room with us” during Trump’s announcement.

Renaming things has become a recurring feature of Trump’s second presidency.

Federal agencies were previously directed to use “Gulf of America” instead of Gulf of Mexico, while Trump has also pursued other geographical and institutional name changes.

Artificial intelligence would be a considerably more ambitious target.

AI appears throughout federal policy, procurement, research and regulatory material, meaning any comprehensive switch in government terminology could reach far beyond a new label on a map.

Trump nevertheless presented the idea to world leaders as something considerably simpler.

This article is made and published by Nicolai H, who may have used AI in the preparation