Trump tries to rename AI 'super intelligence' as polls show him sinking on key issue

retained text

President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered all executive branch departments and agencies to use the term "super intelligence" instead of artificial intelligence.
The executive order, announced by the White House after Trump hosted a lunch with a slew of AI leaders, shows the president attempting a forced rebrand for an industry he has tightly embraced even as Americans grow increasingly wary about the rapidly advancing tech.
Multiple recent polls show majorities of Americans expressing concerns about AI and disapproval of how Trump has handled the issue. But the president, who insists that beating China in the race to AI dominance is an all-important goal, has dismissed as a "hoax" the dire warnings that have been raised about the technology — including by some of the executives who joined him at the White House on Tuesday.
Trump signed the executive order, titled "Inaugurating The Era Of Super Intelligence," to "recognize the continuously advancing technological frontier and the limitless promise it offers the American people," the White House said in a fact sheet.
The new term must be used by all departments and agencies in official correspondence, public communications, policy and other documents in the executive branch, the order states. "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI" will no longer be acknowledged.
Trump, speaking to reporters during an unusual press gathering outside the White House's West Wing earlier Tuesday afternoon, had suggested that a document establishing the new name was signed by the tech titans who had convened for a lunch meeting with him.
"We've changed the name officially today," said Trump, who was not initially expected to appear at the press availability. "The name has been officially changed by the biggest, the smartest, the greatest people anywhere in the world."
But the tech executives appeared to sign a separate, two-page document that Trump shared on his Truth Social account. That document makes no declaration about a name change and only references Trump's new term for AI is in its title: "White House Accord on Super Intelligence."
The accord, subtitled "Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities," says its signatories "believe that every company is responsible for developing its own technology safely and in a way that builds trust."
That includes implementing "robust internal processes and controls to ensure that their technology behaves as intended," the accord states, before recommending four additional layers of controls.
The signers agree to "meet regularly" to establish safety standards, according to the document, which adds that "over time, it may make sense to codify these steps into laws or regulations."
In addition to Trump, the Truth Social post shows the accord was signed by six tech executives: Google's Sundar Pichai, Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman and Jensen Huang of Nvidia.
Asked outside the White House if the document was binding in any way, Trump said it is "morally binding."
Trump had crowdsourced a new name for AI last week, asking his social media followers in a poll if they preferred "SUPER INTELLIGENCE" or "SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCE."
It's the latest attempted name-change for Trump, who has focused intently on branding throughout his careers in business and politics. During the latest flare-up in the U.S.'s ailing relations with Canada last month, Trump signed an executive order asserting Lake Ontario would be renamed "Lake America."
He pulled a similar move right after taking office last year, when he signed an order that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the "Gulf of America."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who was also at Tuesday's luncheon, told reporters before Trump showed up that what attendees signed was a "statement of principles"
Summarizing the document, he said it includes "voluntary" commitments "on behalf of the industry," as well as "robust internal controls" and "layers of internal and external review."
"Safety and innovation are not mutually exclusive pursuits," Johnson said.
But Trump, when asked why people should not be concerned about AI and why there should not be government-mandated safety guardrails, said, "Because we have people that love our country and love the world a lot."
Trump also shrugged when asked if he was concerned that his support for AI and data centers could hurt Republicans in the upcoming midterm election.
"I just have to do what's right," he said.
Johnson said GOP incumbents are in agreement that the U.S. cannot lose its edge over China in the race for AI dominance.
A Quinnipiac University poll released earlier Tuesday afternoon found just 25% of respondents approve of the president's handling of AI, versus 58% who disapprove. That's a lower approval rating than Trump scored on the Iran war (28%), the economy (31%) and U.S.-China policy (34%) in the same poll. The survey was conducted Sept. 24 to Sept. 27 and carries a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.
Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Trump unserious about the risks AI poses.
"The companies building the most powerful AI systems are warning us that the technology is advancing faster than our safeguards. The president's response? To rename it and tell the companies developing it to regulate themselves," Warner said in a statement. "But changing what we call artificial intelligence does nothing to address the very real risks that come with increasingly powerful AI systems."

document fetched 2026-09-30 12:34 · canonical https://cnbc.com/2026/09/29/trump-ai-super-intelligence.html