President Donald Trump and several leading technology figures — including Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia — have begun promoting the use of the term "superintelligence" (SI) instead of "AI." The shift was formalized at a White House summit held on Tuesday, where executives from Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, xAI and Nvidia signed the "White House Accord on Super Intelligence."
Why this matters
Officials in Washington and Silicon Valley say public backlash against "AI" and opposition to large, energy-intensive data centers could impede development of a powerful and potentially existentially risky technology. Adopting the "superintelligence" label is part of a broader effort to reframe public conversation and emphasize the technology's promise rather than the negative associations tied to the term "artificial."
The announcement and participants
At the White House event, Trump declared that the executive branch would prefer the term "superintelligence." He had earlier asked for alternative names on Truth Social. After the summit he said: "Now we're calling it, again, super. We can say the word super, because the other word is a fake word."
Executives from Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, xAI and Nvidia signed the accord. Jensen Huang used "superintelligence" repeatedly in posts about the agreement and during a panel at the White House; he also described data centers as "superintelligence factories." Some participants still used "AI" in remarks — Elon Musk, CEO of xAI, shifted to "SI" mid-speech, and Mark Zuckerberg of Meta has long used the "superintelligence" phrasing.
Reactions and practical reality
Representatives of AI companies declined to comment on the record about the name change. Some sources said their companies are generally supportive of using the "SI" label in conversations with the president and federal agencies; others do not expect the term to gain traction outside those settings.
One person compared the rebranding effort to Trump's past renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America," which some oil executives adopted in their external and internal communications but did not become universal.
Numbers and public opinion
A YouGov poll conducted this week found that 53% of respondents preferred the term "artificial intelligence," while only 9% favored "super intelligence." These results indicate the public has not broadly adopted the new terminology.
What to watch next
Trump said on Tuesday that the word "artificial" makes the technology sound like a hoax: "The name is now superintelligence. That's not a hoax, in fact it's the exact opposite." Polling suggests most Americans do not view the technology as a hoax; rather, their concern stems from potential risks and impacts. The rebranding is an attempt to influence that perception as policymakers and industry leaders continue to navigate regulation, public outreach and infrastructure debates.
Publication context: the White House summit took place on Tuesday; the YouGov poll referenced was conducted this week.
