Donald Trump wants everyone to stop saying artificial intelligence. In a post on Truth Social, the US president declared that "super intelligence" is now the "highly accepted new and more accurate term" for the field. He did not stop at suggesting a brand refresh. Trump added that the administration views anyone who continues using the term artificial intelligence as "The ENEMY!"
The demand lands right as the technology industry wrestles with growing skepticism over its massive capital expenditures.
Silicon Valley has spent years plastering the AI label across hardware and services. Everything from camera autofocus to corporate cloud software carries the branding. Tech giants built their entire public identities around it, creating divisions like Meta AI and standalone ventures like OpenAI.
Yet the financial reality behind the acronym looks increasingly fragile. The core software segment remains broadly unprofitable, even as data centers multiply across the globe and devour electricity and raw resources. Recent reporting from Bloomberg noted that "The price of AI is collapsing," highlighting the steep discount war among model providers.
Public perception is souring in other directions too. Privacy concerns erupted around hardware rollouts, with critics deriding Meta's smart camera glasses with labels like "pervert glasses." Creative professionals have pushed back hard against automated software, especially after models demonstrated the capability to clone massive chunks of Adobe's Creative Cloud photo suite.
Security and safety debates have grown louder as well. Tech companies are dealing with the fallout from warnings by figures like Anthropic whistleblower Jacob Coxon, who argued that unchecked automated systems "could kill us all by the end of the decade."
Whether a presidential decree can erase a foundational industry label is another matter entirely.
Rebranding might tempt executives who want to distance their balance sheets from unfulfilled financial promises or avoid public backlash against automated work. The moniker artificial intelligence has defined computing research for decades, long before the recent generative boom turned it into inescapable consumer marketing. Shifting toward "super intelligence" would blur the distinction between basic machine learning tools and theoretical future software that outstrips human capability.
It also risks deeper consumer confusion. Buyers have finally learned what phone makers and camera manufacturers mean when an automated toggle promises sharper focus or noise reduction. Telling buyers that their pocket devices now pack "super intelligence" instead will test the limits of corporate marketing speak.
Trump has not outlined any official executive action or federal procurement rules to enforce the vocabulary shift. For now, the edict exists only on his social feed, leaving device makers and enterprise software vendors to decide whether they dare keep the old letters on their spec sheets.
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Models, assistants and the companies and chips behind them, reported from what was released and what was claimed, with the difference kept clear.
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