Trump vows to ban the term artificial intelligence

Summarised from 3 outlets · Updated 28 Oct, 08:15 · Archive

President Trump has promised to ban use of the phrase 'artificial intelligence', preferring the term 'super intelligence'.

President Trump has vowed to ban the phrase 'artificial intelligence' throughout the United States, saying he will replace it with 'super intelligence'. He announced the move on Truth Social on Tuesday, declaring that 'in short order' the government will be 'officially banning the term' from all relevant federal documents.

Trump has already directed the federal government to use 'super intelligence' instead of 'artificial intelligence'. In an executive order last month, he wrote that the new terminology should reflect 'the transformative capabilities of these technologies and the limitless opportunities they create for the American people'. He also criticised The Wall Street Journal for continuing to use the old term, calling it 'a very bad and inaccurate name'.

Earlier this month, Trump labelled anyone using 'artificial intelligence' over 'super intelligence' 'the enemy' in another Truth Social post. The Wall Street Journal responded with a newsletter titled 'Let AI Be AI', written from the perspective of AI systems, which argued that the term is widely recognised and that 'super intelligence' is already used to mean something different: systems that are smarter than humans.

The term 'artificial intelligence' was first introduced in 1955 by Stanford University emeritus professor John McCarthy, who defined it as 'the science and engineering of making intelligent machines'. HuffPost reports that it reached out to the White House asking what penalties could be imposed on those using 'AI' instead of 'super intelligence', and whether the government could enforce such a ban given the First Amendment, but received no immediate response.

Geoffrey Hinton, a University of Toronto computer scientist known as 'the Godfather of A.I.', told The Guardian that Trump's focus on 'superintelligence' shows he understands 'almost nothing' about AI. Hinton noted that 'superintelligence' is itself an existing technical term meaning 'smarter than people', used for at least twenty years, and that repurposing it would create confusion.

How it is being reported

• Trump Claims He’ll Soon Officially Ban The Term ‘Artificial Intelligence’Donald Trump is considering drastic steps to ensure people stop saying “artificial intelligence” or “AI” and start using his preferred term “super intelligence” instead. The president took to his Truth Social platform on Tuesday to complain that The Wall Street Journal keeps using the long-accepted terms AI/artificial intelligence instead of immediately falling in line with his wishes. His post included a decree to eventually ban the term altogether: In a TruthSocial post from Oct. 27, 2026, Donald Trump said the term "Artificial Intelligence" would soon be banned. Last month, Trump…HuffPost UK · 28 Oct, 07:59
• Trump vows to 'officially ban' phrase 'artificial intelligence' in the United StatesDonald Trump says he is banning the phrase 'artificial intelligence' and replacing it with 'super intelligence' - which he believes better captures the technology's potentialThe Mirror · 27 Oct, 22:20
• Trump says he is going to ban everyone from using the phrase ‘artificial intelligence’Trump has brought his push to rename artificial intelligence to super intelligence to the next levelIndependent World · 27 Oct, 17:37

In this story: Donald Trump · The Wall Street Journal · Stanford University · John McCarthy · Geoffrey Hinton · University of Toronto · The Guardian · United States

This summary was written by AI from the headlines and standfirsts above, and states as fact only what at least two outlets report. How we use AI · Report a problem · Corrections log