President Donald Trump is now referring to artificial intelligence as ‘super intelligence’; that’s according to a post from the commander-in-chief on Truth Social. In that same post, he refers to it as a “highly accepted new and more accurate term,” going so far as to say that the White House considers those who use the original moniker, artificial intelligence, “The ENEMY!”
AI under the microscope
The move to ‘super intelligence’ would make sense from an industry perspective. In recent weeks, AI has come under the microscope following revelations by Anthropic whistleblower Jacob Coxon, most notably that the technology “could kill us all by the end of the decade”. And while Coxon’s comments are hypothetical, what isn’t hypothetical is how the core AI industry remains largely unprofitable.
Some experts are waiting for the AI bubble to burst in what feels very much like Y2K all over again. The Guardian’s Heather Stewart cites Bloomberg in stating: ““The price of AI is collapsing,” while the economics editor also highlights Meta’s smart glasses debacle that has seen them labelled by some as ‘pervert glasses’, which has only added to a rising hysteria.
Heck, I’ve just written an article on how an AI has cloned a large chunk of Adobe’s Creative Cloud photo editing software suite, and that’s before you consider concerns regarding the rapid expansion of data centers, not to mention the raw materials required to keep the AI train rolling. As we near the end of 2026, it certainly doesn’t seem quite so rosy in AI land.
A good old-fashioned rebrand, then, is exactly what the advocates of AI need. But changing the name of artificial intelligence won’t be easy. It’s a term that far predates the genAI boom and has long been used as a marketing buzzword. As such, AI or artificial intelligence is everywhere.
From the micro, such as the names of tools in photo editing software like AI Assistant or the AI algorithms in autofocus systems, to the macro, OpenAI, Meta AI it’s literally in the name. It’s also possible that the introduction of ‘super intelligence’ could confuse the consumer, who, at this point, is very used to AI marketing.
Transparency is paramount
Personally, I don’t want to see the term ‘artificial intelligence’ dropped precisely because it reminds us that AI removes the human element. And in the creative industry, that’s a very important distinction. I’ve noticed that while plenty of people don’t enjoy consuming AI content, they don’t always notice what is and isn’t AI content.
As genAI advances, it’s only going to get harder and harder to decipher what is and isn’t AI. But people deserve to know what they’re consuming so they can make an informed choice about it. I firmly believe that AI-generated content requires more transparency, not less.
Only time will tell if ‘super intelligence’ catches on, but perhaps ‘super artificial intelligence’ would be a better naming convention. SAI certainly has a better ring to it than SI. Still, it’s going to be interesting to see if the industry follows the President’s lead or if AI is simply too ingrained at this point to change.
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