Donald Trump rebrands AI as ‘super intelligence’ and bets on voluntary oversight

President Donald Trump wants to stop calling it artificial intelligence. Going forward, the administration is adopting the term “super intelligence” in official government documents, a rebranding announced at a September 29 tech summit. The executive order and its voluntary framework The foundation of this approach was laid on June 2 with Executive Order 14409, which established a voluntary review framework for what the administration calls “covered frontier models.” Under this system, AI developers can submit their most advanced systems for cybersecurity reviews lasting up to 30 days before public release. The operative word is “voluntary.” The administration has been careful to distinguish this process from anything resembling a licensing regime or pre-clearance requirement. Companies can participate if they choose to, and there’s no penalty for skipping the line entirely. Trump has framed this as the sweet spot between reckless permissiveness and heavy-handed regulation. The existing legal apparatus, particularly the Department of Justice, is positioned as the backstop for catching misuse after it happens rather than preventing it through gatekeeping. The geopolitical dimension ...