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World desk4 min

Trump’s AI Rebrand Raises an Awkward Question for OpenAI

Trump’s order changes terminology in specified federal communications, not private company names or everyday speech. OpenAI president Greg Brockman’s White House remark highlights the tension.
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President Donald Trump’s September 29, 2026, executive order tells federal executive-branch agencies to use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” instead of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in specified official communications. It does not rename private companies or ban people from using “AI.” The awkward moment for OpenAI came when its president, Greg Brockman, praised the administration’s accord at the White House while still calling the technology “artificial intelligence.”

Did Trump officially rename artificial intelligence?

Not across the board. Executive Order 14434, “Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence,” directs executive departments and agencies, “to the maximum extent permitted by law,” to use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory executive-branch documents.

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The order says agencies need not revise earlier regulations, presidential actions, contracts, grants, or historical documents. It also says it creates no enforceable right or benefit against the government. Its operative language is an instruction about executive-branch communications, not a rule requiring private firms, news outlets, or individuals to change their vocabulary.

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Why call it “Super Intelligence” if the order covers AI?

The order adopts an existing statutory definition of artificial intelligence for its administrative use of “Super Intelligence.” Under 15 U.S.C. § 9401(3), the category includes a machine-based system that can make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments to achieve human-defined objectives. The order also calls for proposed legislative language to establish a federal definition within 60 days of September 29, 2026.

In ordinary technical discussion, “superintelligence” usually means something much narrower and more ambitious: an AI system that surpasses human cognitive capabilities broadly. PolitiFact reported on October 7 that the industry generally agrees no system has reached that level. The order’s administrative label therefore should not be read as a finding that current AI systems are superintelligent.

Question Order’s “Super Intelligence” label Ordinary technical use of “superintelligence”
Scope Systems covered by the existing statutory AI definition. Systems exceeding human cognition across nearly all fields.
Setting Specified official executive-branch communications. General discussion of a capability threshold.
Status An administrative naming convention in an executive order. A description of a level of capability, commonly treated as hypothetical for current systems.

Philosopher Nick Bostrom, who popularized the term, told WIRED that AI has covered a much broader range of systems, including spam filters, spell checkers, navigation systems, early large language models, and older chess engines. “It seems awkward to refer to these as ‘superintelligent,’” he said. His point captures the distinction: changing the government’s label does not change what the underlying technical term usually means.

What did OpenAI say at the White House?

At the September 29 event, OpenAI president Greg Brockman said, “we build artificial intelligence to benefit everyone,” then praised the accord and the importance of moving forward safely under Trump’s leadership. The remark puts the familiar term alongside support for the administration’s initiative, making for an awkward juxtaposition.

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It does not, by itself, establish OpenAI’s broader naming policy. It was a short public event remark, not a company announcement that OpenAI would reject the order or use “SI” in every setting.

Are companies actually switching to “SI”?

Axios reported on October 1 that leaders from Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, xAI, and Nvidia signed the White House Accord on Super Intelligence. The same report found mixed language after the event: some leaders continued to say “AI,” while some company representatives described using “SI” when dealing with the administration or working with the federal government. That distinction fits the order’s limited scope; it does not establish a universal change to product names, company names, or public-facing research language.

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On October 2, WIRED reported that it had asked OpenAI and other companies about changes to company, product, research, and communications naming, but had not received answers by publication. That is a time-specific account of responses at that point, not evidence of what companies decided later.

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Do people prefer the new label?

Axios reported that a YouGov poll conducted during the week of October 1, 2026, found 53% preferred “artificial intelligence” and 9% preferred “super intelligence.” Axios did not provide the poll’s sample size or methodology, so those figures should be treated as the reported result rather than a fully assessable measure of public opinion.

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Can the government ban people from saying “artificial intelligence”?

The order does not purport to do that. Its instruction applies to executive departments and agencies’ specified official communications, and it is qualified by “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” Axios reported on October 8 that the order specified no penalty for using “AI.”

Trump’s rhetoric had grown sharper by then: in a Truth Social post, he characterized people using “Artificial Intelligence” rather than “Super Intelligence” as “THE ENEMY!” That was his description of those speakers, not a penalty created by the executive order. Axios also observed mixed terminology on White House digital properties, including AI references and a changed AI.gov display; those were the outlet’s observations on October 8, not a guarantee of their present state.

What is the practical takeaway for OpenAI?

OpenAI’s public-facing language and the federal government’s preferred terminology are separate questions. Brockman’s remark shows that OpenAI’s president used “artificial intelligence” while publicly supporting the accord; it does not settle how OpenAI may describe its work in government-facing settings. The order creates a formal naming instruction for executive agencies, while the broader public and technical meaning of “superintelligence” remains distinct from the statutory category it uses.

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