Trump Wants to Rename "Artificial Intelligence"

It’s been one heck of a week in the world of AI.

Researchers used Claude to hack into OpenAI, Google confirmed that Gemini hacked other companies during testing, Jev got released and everyone is going crazy about it, and now Trump wants to rename “artificial intelligence.”

His candidates are “Extreme Intelligence” and “Superior Intelligence.” There was a third one, “Supreme Intelligence,” but he already removed it from the running.

I initially read about it from other users and thought it was a joke. It wasn’t. There are polls, hundreds of thousands of votes, and an argument about whether “artificial” is the wrong word for the technology.

Just so you know, “Superior Intelligence” is winning.

Let’s get into what he actually said, because the poll and the reason behind it are two different things.

Trump’s call to rename Artificial Intelligence

On September 19, 2026, Trump asked his followers to choose a replacement for artificial intelligence. He described the current name as “inaccurate and very ineloquent.”

The original choices were:

• Superior Intelligence, or SI
• Extreme Intelligence, or EI
• Supreme Intelligence, also SI

The next day, he removed Supreme Intelligence and started a fresh vote. He suggested that its association with the Supreme Court might explain its poor performance.

As of today, these are the numbers for the original X poll, with more than 226,000 votes:

Supreme was actually ahead of Extreme. Right now, Superior Intelligence is leading the subsequent two-choice polls. These are reported snapshots from September 20, not a verified final runoff result.

And no, this poll will not officially change the name. The posts present a proposal, without an accompanying technical definition or a process for getting the rest of the field to adopt it.

Why rename AI?

Trump’s stated complaint is that the name doesn’t accurately describe the technology and doesn’t sound good.

Hmm.. Okay. “Artificial” can sound like “fake,” and calling useful machine intelligence fake doesn’t explain what it can do.

If a model helps find a software vulnerability, the vulnerability is real. If it helps produce working code, that code still runs. The work doesn’t become imaginary because a machine contributed to it.

But artificial also means something made by people. Artificial light isn’t fake light. An artificial heart isn’t there for decoration.

That’s the meaning I associate with artificial intelligence, but I don’t think we’re missing anything by keeping it.

Who coined the term “Artificial intelligence”?

The term came from John McCarthy’s 1955 proposal for the research gathering held at Dartmouth in 1956. Dartmouth describes the project as an attempt to investigate whether machines could simulate aspects of intelligence.

John McCarthy’s artificial intelligence laboratory at Stanford

“Superior” introduces a comparison without telling us what’s being compared. “Extreme” doesn’t give us a usable description at all.

There is a political context here too. Trump has been defending continued AI development, and on September 19 announced plans for an “AI Force” and another AI czar. The proposed force still lacked details, including its budget and where it would sit in government.

My reading is that the names fit his support for the industry. They describe AI as something impressive that people should welcome. That’s just an interpretation of the messaging, though.

Public opinion does give him a problem.

Pew’s June 2026 survey found that 52% of American adults were more concerned than excited about AI’s growing use. Only 9% were more excited than concerned.

% of U.S. adults who say the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) in daily life makes them feel

Those people weren’t answering a question about terminology. Someone worried about their job probably isn’t waiting for a better adjective before deciding how they feel.

How people are reacting to this

On Reddit, one user wanted AI renamed because they considered it glorified autocorrect.

I wish we could rename it to, because what we have now is not artificial intelligence at all. It’s a language model, a glorified autocorrect. But Trump’s suggestions here go in the opposite direction. And they border on idolatry.

I disagree with dismissing the technology that way. Hacktron’s account of the OpenAI breach describes Claude helping researchers turn vulnerabilities into working exploits. It also says skilled human guidance remained important.

Both details belong in the explanation. Giving the model credit doesn’t require pretending it did everything by itself.

Some users propose different name alternatives. How about Intelligence Amplification or IA?

On Hacker News, I find most of the comments were either hate or jokes. User techblueberry wrote:

“I vote extreme, but it should be XI instead EI for eXtreme.”

Another participant, ggm, called the discussion a diversion from more important questions. That’s an opinion about Trump’s priorities, not evidence that distraction was his intention.

Criticism also came from commenter Matt Walsh. In a response on X, he argued that artificial was already the correct word and called “superior intelligence” “anti-human and dystopian.”

“Artificial” is already the correct word. “Extreme intelligence” sounds retarded and “superior intelligence” is anti-human and dystopian. But more importantly, why the hell is the president focused on this?

Lol he’s got a point. I’d probably just keep artificial intelligence and put my focus on more important things.

Trump can make a case for renaming AI. For me, that case needs a better reason than the current name sounding bad.

Which would you choose: Superior Intelligence, Extreme Intelligence, or keep AI?