President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday requiring all federal agencies to replace the terms "artificial intelligence" and "AI" with "super intelligence," as a new poll found only 25% of Americans approve of his handling of the technology.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order directing all federal departments and agencies to stop using the terms "artificial intelligence" and "AI" in official communications, replacing them with "super intelligence" — a rebrand announced hours after Trump hosted a lunch at the White House with some of the industry's most prominent executives.
The order, titled "Inaugurating The Era Of Super Intelligence," instructs every corner of the executive branch to adopt the new terminology in official correspondence, public communications, policy documents, and all other government materials, according to a White House fact sheet.
The move comes as polls show a growing disconnect between the administration's embrace of the technology and public opinion. A Quinnipiac University survey released Tuesday — conducted September 24 through September 27, with a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points — found that just 25% of respondents approve of Trump's handling of AI. That figure is lower than the president's approval ratings on the Iran war (28%), the economy (31%), and U.S.-China policy (34%) in the same poll.
Trump, who appeared unexpectedly before reporters outside the West Wing on Tuesday afternoon, framed the renaming as a collective decision endorsed by the technology leaders gathered for lunch. "We've changed the name officially today," he said. "The name has been officially changed by the biggest, the smartest, the greatest people anywhere in the world."
Six tech executives signed a separate two-page document that Trump later shared on his Truth Social account. The signatories were Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
That document, however, makes no declaration about renaming the technology. Titled "White House Accord on Super Intelligence" and subtitled "Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities," it states that signatories "believe that every company is responsible for developing its own technology safely and in a way that builds trust." It calls for robust internal controls, layered review processes, and regular meetings to establish safety standards, adding that "over time, it may make sense to codify these steps into laws or regulations."
Asked whether the accord carries any legal force, Trump told reporters it is "morally binding."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who also attended the luncheon, described the document as a "statement of principles" with "voluntary" commitments "on behalf of the industry." "Safety and innovation are not mutually exclusive pursuits," Johnson said.
Trump had previewed the renaming effort last week, posting a poll on social media asking followers whether they preferred "SUPER INTELLIGENCE" or "SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCE." The exercise follows a pattern of Trump-ordered renamings: earlier this year he signed orders designating the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America" and, amid tensions with Canada last month, directed that Lake Ontario be called "Lake America."
Not all reaction to Tuesday's announcement was favorable. Sen. Mark R. Warner, Democrat of Virginia and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Trump unserious about the risks the technology poses. Trump, for his part, dismissed warnings about AI as a "hoax" and said when asked why government-mandated safety guardrails are unnecessary: "Because we have people that love our country and love the world a lot."
The midterm elections, now weeks away, loom over Tuesday's events. When asked whether his support for AI and data centers could hurt Republicans at the polls, Trump said, "I just have to do what's right." Johnson added that GOP incumbents are united around the argument that the U.S. cannot afford to lose its technological edge to China.
Whether the terminological shift alters broader public sentiment toward the administration's technology agenda will become clearer as the midterm campaign enters its final stretch — and as the voluntary safety commitments signed Tuesday are tested against the accelerating pace of AI deployment across both the public and private sectors.
Marc Sabatini is a staff writer at TechEchelon covering enterprise software, cybersecurity, and the regulatory beats that shape both. He focuses on the deal flow and policy decisions that move markets.
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