Diplomats ordered to use ‘super intelligence’ instead of ‘artificial intelligence’ in Trump push

The State Department ordered its diplomats to use term “super intelligence” (SI) when referring to artificial intelligence in all of its communications, after President Trump pushed for the renaming, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

The AP obtained an email with the subject line “Change in Nomenclature AI to SI” sent to the department’s Bureau of International Organizations, which runs U.S. diplomatic missions to all United Nations and world agencies. It is not clear if other bureaus within the State Department received the order.

“Following the president’s remarks at the GA [General Assembly] today, please change all references of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ to ‘Super Intelligence’ in our documents and positions,” according to the email obtained by the AP and sent by Michael Draper, the bureau’s deputy assistant secretary of State. “We will be using ‘SI’ in all remarks, positions and press elements moving forward.”

The Hill has reached out to the State Department for comment.

Trump said Tuesday that all official U.S. documents referring to AI will henceforth refer to it as “super intelligence” in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. The word “artificial,” he asserted, “makes intelligence sound fake.”

“It is not fake,” he continued. “It’s actually amazing. But we have to be careful. In fact, it is exactly the opposite of what it purports. From this point forward, all of the United States’s documents, and hopefully the world’s, will be changed to use the much more accurate term ‘super,’ as opposed to ‘artificial.'”

Superintelligence as a term is already defined as a form of artificial intelligence that exceeds human intelligence, according to Merriam-Webster . The term can refer to either the gravest concerns about AI’s potential risk to human life on Earth or the ultimate goal of many frontier AI firms.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) this week introduced a bill to ban artificial superintelligence that cannot be controlled by humans and halt the development of AI technology until there is rigorous testing and oversight in place. Both previously called for a ban on the development and deployment of AI, citing “rogue” agents.

“Scientists have been clear: AI is an existential threat to humanity,” Sanders said in a statement. “It must be treated as such. This legislation will permanently ban the development of artificial superintelligence and would put in place an immediate pause on advanced AI development until we have clear safety rules in place — developed by the most knowledgeable scientists in our country. Congress must act now before it is too late.”

Trump has dismissed worries from lawmakers concerned about recent comments from former Anthropic and OpenAI researcher Jacob Coxon. He said AI could be an existential threat to humanity by the end of the decade, a claim Trump has called “a hoax.”