Trump bid to rebrand AI as 'superintelligence' rejected by tech sector

Trump's UN Proposal

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged the United Nations General Assembly to abandon the term “artificial intelligence” in favor of “superintelligence,” arguing that the current label wrongly implies the technology is fake rather than transformative.

Speaking during his address to world leaders in New York, Trump stated that “the use of the word artificial makes intelligence fake,” adding that “it is not fake. It’s actually amazing.” The proposal comes as Washington seeks to maintain technological dominance over China amid growing calls from experts to slow AI development for safety reasons.

Industry Rejects Rebranding

ChatGPT developer OpenAI said the term “artificial intelligence” is unlikely to disappear, though “superintelligence” could become an umbrella term for advanced models with truly superhuman capabilities. Grok maker xAI, billionaire Elon Musk’s company, also indicated that replacing the established terminology remains improbable despite the presidential preference for alternative phrasing.

Claude developer Anthropic noted that while “superintelligence” might enter official statements from Washington, the existing terminology will not be phased out of general use, according to industry sources. Google’s Gemini echoed this sentiment, and China’s DeepSeek emphasized that the two terms represent distinct technical categories that cannot be conflated through political decree.

Ankara Urges Global Framework

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged the creation of a common international legal framework for AI, telling the General Assembly that controlling the technology has become increasingly difficult without multilateral cooperation. Ankara favors joint regulatory steps over unilateral semantic changes, positioning Türkiye as an advocate for structured global governance amid ongoing debates over technological acceleration.