Trump Says US Will Now Call AI ‘Super Intelligence’ in Government Documents
U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that the American government will begin referring to artificial intelligence as “super intelligence” in its official documents.
Trump made the announcement on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, during his address to the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The announcement follows several comments by Trump in recent days about the terminology used to describe artificial intelligence.
According to Reuters, Trump said U.S. government documents would henceforth use the term “super intelligence” instead of “artificial intelligence.”
Trump had previously questioned the phrase “artificial intelligence,” arguing that the word “artificial” was inaccurate and not an appropriate description of the technology.
On September 19, he asked his followers on Truth Social to consider alternative names, including “Super Intelligence,” “Extreme Intelligence” and “Supreme Intelligence.”
By September 21, Trump was using “SI,” meaning “Super Intelligence,” in his public comments about the technology.
During his UN address, Trump also defended continued development of AI and opposed the introduction of new regulations that he believes could slow the technology’s growth. Reuters reported that he said U.S. law-enforcement agencies could intervene if necessary, while maintaining that the technology should continue to develop.
Trump’s announcement concerns terminology used by the U.S. government and does not itself change the established technical meaning or international use of the term “artificial intelligence.”
The term “superintelligence” already has a separate meaning in technology and academic discussions. It is commonly used to describe a hypothetical form of machine intelligence that would surpass human cognitive abilities across a broad range of tasks. The United Nations has previously used the expression “artificial super intelligence” in discussions about possible future AI systems.
The announcement therefore represents a proposed change in U.S. government terminology rather than a global renaming of artificial intelligence.
Trump’s remarks come as governments and technology companies continue to debate the development, regulation and potential risks of increasingly capable AI systems.
