In 1956 a group of researchers gathered at Dartmouth College and coined the phrase artificial intelligence, a term proposed by John McCarthy. A recent Google Scholar search for that phrase returns roughly 7.4 million entries, indicating its widespread adoption across academia and industry.
President Donald J. Trump expressed a personal aversion to the term, first hinting at its removal during a September 23 address to the United Nations. At a subsequent White House luncheon with leading AI figures, he issued an executive order declaring artificial intelligence a prohibited term and directing the government to use the label super intelligence instead.
The lunch was attended by CEOs and founders such as Jeff Bezos, Jensen Huang, Dario Amodei, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Greg Brockman, Alex Karp and Elon Musk. None of the participants voiced opposition, allowing Trump to claim that “the name has been changed by the biggest, the smartest, the greatest people anywhere in the world,” a statement reported in the post-lunch press briefing.
Earlier, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella said he would have preferred a different label, yet he continues to reference artificial intelligence in corporate communications. Mark Zuckerberg recently announced a Superintelligence Lab, but his company still markets a product called Meta AI and sells AI-branded glasses under that name.
The article’s author contacted major AI firms,including Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, Meta, Amazon, OpenAI and xAI,asking whether they would alter product names or corporate branding to match the presidential directive. As of the time of writing, none of the companies had responded to the inquiry.
The author suggests that firms may adopt only the minimal adjustments required to avoid presidential displeasure while awaiting a future administration that could reverse the order. The newly mandated term super intelligence is described as considerably more ominous than the original label.
The original purpose of the artificial intelligence label was to distinguish machine cognition from human thought, not to imply falseness. Some commentators argue that regulations should require explicit watermarks or labels on AI-generated content, a measure the White House has not pursued. In contrast, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order defending the use of the term artificial intelligence.
The episode highlights a rare instance of the technology sector acquiescing to a naming directive without public dissent, raising questions about the balance between voluntary industry standards and governmental influence over core terminology.