Trump’s AI Rebrand: Introducing ‘Super Intelligence’ and Its Implications

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the term “artificial intelligence” will be replaced by “super intelligence” in U.S. government documents, a declaration he made during the United Nations General Assembly. He added that, going forward, all U.S. paperwork—and ideally global records—will adopt the label “super” instead of “artificial.”

Although the announcement caught many off guard, the concept of superintelligence is not new. It was popularized by philosopher Nick Bostrom in his 2014 bestseller *Superintelligence*, where he defined it as “any intellect that vastly outperforms human cognition across nearly every domain.” Accordingly, artificial superintelligence (ASI) describes future AI systems that could far exceed human abilities, distinguishing them from the limited AI technologies currently in use.

ASI represents a progression beyond artificial general intelligence (AGI), a term OpenAI uses to describe “highly autonomous systems that surpass humans in most economically valuable tasks.” Under that framework, today’s AI systems have not yet reached AGI, let alone ASI, because we cannot rely on AI as a dependable virtual worker.

Nevertheless, some scholars criticize the term superintelligence or doubt its coherence. In the influential 2025 paper *AI as Normal Technology*, Sayash Kapoor and Arvind Narayanan argue that “there is no meaningful definition of ‘intelligence’ under which AI surpasses humans who are assisted by AI.”

Others contend that the proposed renaming fuels an ongoing dialogue about AI’s expanding capabilities.

“‘Super’ captures the reality that AI is increasingly outperforming humans across a broadening set of tasks, often by widening margins—a development that carries national‑security implications far beyond mere parity,” observed Caleb Withers, a research associate with the Technology and Security Program at the Center for a New American Security.

For instance, in early September OpenAI revealed that it had solved the Navier‑Stokes Millennium Prize problem, one of mathematics’ most significant unsolved challenges.

As AI capabilities advance, the technology has become a focal point of U.S.–China relations. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet this week to address trade and AI matters. Nick Bostrom, who has long warned about the perils of fully superintelligent AI, cautioned that an all‑out AI rivalry raises the likelihood of losing control. He warned, “If rivals believe that finishing second in the AI race equates to losing everything they value, they will accept any risk to outpace their competitors.”

Trump reportedly fears that a slowdown in AI development could trigger a market downturn, and he views “super intelligence” as a pivotal arena for maintaining U.S. superiority over China. He remarked, “Whoever leads in AI—and now I say, whoever leads in SI, whoever leads in super intelligence—prevails. That side will be the victor.”

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