U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered federal agencies to replace “artificial intelligence” with “Super Intelligence” in official communications, websites and policy documents. The executive order gives the state power to rename a consequential technology and requires agencies to carry the new language into their public-facing materials.
An Order From the Top
Trump wants to remove the word “artificial,” saying it makes one of the world's most consequential technologies sound “fake.” The order doesn't simply suggest a preferred phrase. It tells federal agencies to use “Super Intelligence,” or SI, across official communications, websites and policy documents.
That’s the decision’s concrete reach: federal agencies must use the language, and their official channels are where it will appear. People who encounter those channels will see vocabulary chosen by presidential order. No grassroots response, community organizing or mutual-aid effort appears in the account. The executive branch took the action and directed it down to agencies.
The choice of words matters because the order concerns how official institutions describe the technology. “Artificial intelligence” becomes “Super Intelligence” not through a community process described in the article, but through a directive from Donald Trump. The White House supplies the language of limitless possibility; the president requires agencies to change their official wording.
The term AI dates back to 1956. The article sets that established term beside Trump's new preferred label, but gives no further details about how federal agencies will carry out the order beyond changing their communications, websites and policy documents. The order is the stated mechanism. Agencies will put it into effect.
Two Names, Different Centers
China's name for the technology has long carried a different connotation, according to the article. It places humans, rather than artificiality, at the center of the relationship between people and intelligent machines. The article describes that contrast but doesn't provide the Chinese term itself, so the distinction rests on the meaning it reports, not a direct comparison of the words.
The contrast involves two ways of framing the relationship: Trump's order rejects “artificial” as a description, while the account says China's terminology centers humans in relation to intelligent machines. Neither description gives details about public participation in choosing the terminology. In the U.S. case, the means are explicit: an executive order directs federal agencies to adopt the language in official materials.
The White House said the new terminology better reflected the technology's rapidly advancing capabilities and “limitless opportunities.” That’s the administration's justification. Its words came after the order and from the institution backing it; agencies must replace the old phrase in the specified official settings.
Chong Ming Lee wrote the article describing the contrast. The account leaves the hierarchy plain without claiming that a new label changes the technology itself: a president can direct the language federal agencies use, while the White House supplies the rationale. “Super Intelligence” is now the term the order instructs agencies to use. In this case, the office issuing the command holds the power to name.