Why Trump’s Rebrand of Artificial Intelligence to Super Intelligence Matters

CNBC reports that President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered all executive branch departments and agencies to use the term "super intelligence" instead of artificial intelligence.[2] According to CNBC, the order states that "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI" will no longer be acknowledged.[2]Fox Business reports that Trump wrote in the order that "the term 'Super Intelligence' more appropriately captures the promise, potential, and rapidly advancing capabilities of these technologies."[3]PolitiFact notes that the AI industry already uses the term "superintelligence," and it means something different than the government's new definition.[4] Historian Thomas Haigh told PolitiFact that "rebranding it to superintelligence is unlikely to reassure them."[5]Writing in TIME, the former speechwriter argues that "our shared language around artificial intelligence already places far too much emphasis on intelligence, and far too little on artifice."[1] The author warns that treating AI as a new kind of being "plays into tech barons' argument that only the companies who can create AI could possess the knowledge to control it."[1] Mark Warner said in a statement reported by CNBC that "changing what we call artificial intelligence does nothing to address the very real risks."[2]The San Francisco Standard reports that a day after the White House tried to rebrand AI, Gov. Newsom ordered state agencies to keep calling it "artificial intelligence."[6]