This hands-off approach aligns with Trump’s overall strategy to combat AI risks. The president is so determined to win the so-called AI race that he will not put meaningful guardrails on the industry. At the same time, polls show that most voters want stronger AI regulations ahead of the midterm elections.
Critics fear that Trump’s most recent attempt to rebrand “artificial intelligence” (AI) as “super intelligence” (SI) will only further confuse the public about the risks of AI, while primarily serving to give Trump the impression that the United States has already reached a milestone on AI that is, in reality, quite far.
As US companies like OpenAI appear to be losing control of their pioneering models, Trump’s understanding of AI risks also continues to come under scrutiny.
But Trump wants to be trusted as the sole authority on AI, no questions asked. At a recent United Nations assembly, Trump claimed his name change was simply because the president thought the word “artificial” made the technology sound “fake,” the South China Morning Post reported. He used the security scandals to argue that frontier AI now goes beyond “mere imitation or automation of certain aspects of human intelligence” and that this makes “superintelligence” a “better reflection” of American AI companies; “growing capabilities and potential,” the SCMP reported.
Trump officials have already adopted SI as their preferred term. In the DOJ press release, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said that “IS is the defining technology of the era.” Even though AI leaders know the term is technically inaccurate, CEOs like Huang and Elon Musk have also committed to using IS.
Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, told SCMP that Trump was simply trying to project American dominance while ignoring the risks. By exaggerating today’s AI, the president hopes his rebranding will connect his legacy to when AI surpassed human capabilities.
Chan joined California Governor Gavin Newsom in warning that the rebranding risked increasing “some people’s perceptions of risk and fear” as AI pioneering companies claimed the technology could soon pose existential risks.
Newsom flatly rejected Trump’s rebranding, describing it as a “helpless and cowardly failure to address well-documented emerging security and safety risks.”
And “respectfully,” China’s Foreign Ministry is doing the same, SCMP reported. Both governments have immense influence over the regulation of AI and will continue to use AI, not IS.
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