President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US government will soon stop using the term artificial intelligence. His pledge came in a Truth Social post calling the phrase “a very bad and inaccurate name.” He also said the government will be “officially BANNING the term” in all relevant documents. The first target he named was The Wall Street Journal. Trump accused the paper of holding to the old wording. The rest of the world, in his telling, is moving to what he calls Super Intelligence. The Trump AI term ban would apply to all relevant government documents.
The Trump AI term ban is the newest step in a rebranding campaign running since September. Still, its legal reach is narrow. In addition, Newsweek reports the September order binds only the executive branch. As a result, private companies, researchers and journalists can keep saying AI.
How the Trump AI term ban started
The paperwork shift began on September 29. Trump signed an executive order directing every federal agency to write Super Intelligence or SI instead of AI. According to Variety, the order calls the replacement term a better description of what these technologies can do. It also directs agencies to avoid acknowledging AI in most government settings.
Meanwhile, the rename push behind the Trump AI term ban has gone well beyond paperwork. At the United Nations General Assembly in September, Trump told delegates the US would start calling the technology Super Intelligence. He argued the word artificial makes the intelligence sound fake. “It is not fake,” he said. Furthermore, earlier this month, Trump warned that the White House counts anyone still saying AI as “THE ENEMY!” His administration also announced a “Super Intelligence Force” to promote the rebrand. The force is to be led by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton.
Who has actually switched
Some in industry are playing along. For example, Elon Musk said he would rename his AI business as SpaceX Super Intelligence. Its website still reads x.ai. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has used the new wording on occasion. Microsoft itself has announced no product renaming.
Everyone else has kept the old words in the face of the Trump AI term ban. Anthropic and OpenAI continue to describe their work as AI. For instance, OpenAI funding round talks target $30 billion, yet the company still uses the old name. In fact, the administration’s naming fight has reached the press before. It barred The Associated Press from the Oval Office after the wire service declined to rename the Gulf of Mexico. A federal judge ruled that move a likely First Amendment violation. The case is on appeal.
Yet, even the target of Tuesday’s post answered back. The Wall Street Journal’s opinion section had already published a newsletter called “Let AI Be AI.” The Independent notes its writer joked that SI was already taken by Sports Illustrated.
Overall, officials frame the Trump AI term ban as branding. White House spokesperson Liz Huston told Newsweek the Super Intelligence name reinforces the administration’s focus on innovation and the economy. Newsweek also points to a technical mismatch. In other words, researchers have long used the word superintelligence for a hypothetical machine beyond human ability. That is a narrower idea than today’s AI systems.
What to watch
- Agency rollout. The order’s practical force depends on how departments implement it in documents and public systems.
- Industry uptake. Anthropic, OpenAI and most of the market still say AI. The gap between official and commercial language could widen before it closes.
- Court limits. Extending the Trump AI term ban beyond the executive branch would test limits courts have already questioned.
In short, the Trump AI term ban will show its real strength in the dullest places. Agency forms, filings and websites would carry the new wording first. The executive order can make the federal government say Super Intelligence. Whether the rest of the world follows is a different question.
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