Will Trump's AI rebrand to 'super intelligence' catch on?

Will Trump’s AI rebrand to “super intelligence” catch on?

US President Donald Trump says the phrase artificial intelligence (AI) makes the technology “sound fake” and wants it renamed “super intelligence”.

“Welcome to the new world of super intelligence - SI,” Trump said in a broad speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

Although some people close to the president quickly began using the term, experts told the BBC it is unlikely to gain broad acceptance in the industry because it is usually used to describe more advanced systems.

The move is Trump’s latest rebranding effort after he had the names of Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico changed on US maps and federal communications.

“From this point forward, all of United States' documents, and hopefully the world's, will be changed to use the more accurate term 'super' as opposed to 'artificial'. So it's 'super intelligence',” Trump said.

Over the past week, Trump asked his social media followers to vote on other possible new names for AI, including superior intelligence, extreme intelligence and supreme intelligence.

After a series of polls on his Truth Social platform, super intelligence emerged as the winner.

It is not clear why AI is being renamed, or whether the technology industry will adopt the new label.

AI refers to computer technology that enables machines to perform tasks that normally require human thinking.

By contrast, super intelligence has a specific meaning in the tech world.

The term is often associated with author and philosopher Nick Bostrom, who more than a decade ago described it as an “intellect” superior to humans in every form. It remains entirely hypothetical.

Digital ethics lecturer Simon Coghlan from The University of Melbourne said the rebranding is “misleading”, because super intelligence usually refers to a system capable of improving itself.

“I doubt 'SI' will stick, in part because it exaggerates the current capacities of AI,” he said.

“A superintelligent system, if it came about, would be regarded by experts as the most consequential technology ever made,” Coghlan said.

“Not all AI platforms today exude super intelligence”, said computer scientist Kokil Jaidka, adding that the new name “borrows the prestige of a term researchers reserve for a much bigger leap”.

National University of Singapore computer science lecturer Ben Leong said: “My guess is that professionals will want to save 'SI' for a higher level of AI, not so much to describe AI today. It doesn't feel like it's at that level yet.”

Still, some in Trump’s circle have already begun using the new term.

“The Super Intelligence (SI) President has spoken! The United States is and will remain the global leader in SI,” US Chief Technology Officer Ethan Klein wrote on social media.

Trump’s ambassador to the UN Michael Waltz later said: “If you didn't see the president's speech, it's now super intelligence. I think he's absolutely right.”

But when asked about the new name, Canada’s minister of AI Evan Solomon said: “Canadians are not enthusiastic, at all, about renaming things,” in what appeared to be a reference to Trump renaming Lake Ontario.

The comments come as leading tech executives and researchers have recently urged the US government to regulate the industry over fears that AI could threaten humanity - concerns Trump has dismissed as “a hoax”.

He has opposed regulating the technology and said the US cannot afford to let China - its main technology rival - gain an advantage, adding that whichever side “wins AI, wins”.

“We're leading now over China by a lot, and everyone else, and we're going to keep it that way,” Trump said.

The US is not going to “stifle the growth of something that will be bigger than the industrial revolution,” he added.

Trump said the government will “rein things in” if necessary and will lead the sector responsibly.

Trump is due to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping this week, with AI expected to be among the topics discussed by the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies.