Trump renames AI "super intelligence," rejects international oversight

On September 22, US President Donald Trump decided to rename artificial intelligence to "super intelligence" in official government communications. This rebranding came amid growing alarm about the fast-developing technology and calls for international oversight of AI. At the United Nations General Assembly, Trump stated that the US would not comply with any attempts to create a globalist scheme to control artificial intelligence.

He argued that the term "artificial intelligence" did not accurately reflect the technology's capabilities and that "superintelligence" was a more appropriate and accurate description. The rebranding was part of a series of renaming decisions by the Trump administration, including renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America" and Lake Ontario to "Lake America".

Trump compared the warnings of AI safety advocates to those about climate change, emphasizing that the "very same people" who predicted disasters from global warming now warned about AI. Ahead of the UN assembly, leaders from over 20 countries, mostly from Europe, urged binding safety measures for advanced AI, warning that its development might outpace control.

France's President Emmanuel Macron proposed pooling investment capabilities to build an open-source AI model, emphasizing the need to avoid dependence on other great powers. Meanwhile, US-based AI giants like OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei were set to address the UN Security Council, while France, holding the Security Council presidency at the time, believed that AI's potential threats to international peace and security had not been sufficiently discussed.

UN chief Antonio Guterres called for dialogue between the US and China on the future of AI, likening the situation to US-Soviet engagement during the Cold War.