President Donald Trump has proposed replacing the term Artificial Intelligence, calling it ‘inaccurate’ and ‘very ineloquent’ and asking the public to weigh in on new names.
Debate over renaming Artificial Intelligence
In a Truth Social post on Saturday, September 19, 2026, Trump listed three alternative names to replace AI: Superior Intelligence (SI), Extreme Intelligence (EI) and Supreme Intelligence (SI). He wrote that ‘many people think that the words ‘Artificial Intelligence’ are inaccurate, and very ineloquent, relative to AI, or Artificial Intelligence’ and described the suggested labels as ‘a far more elegant and accurate description of this new phenomena.’ Trump also urged people to participate in the poll on his post to choose a replacement for the term.
It is not clear how Trump’s proposed name changes would be applied to the wider industry.
Notably, Trump has said he uses AI himself. In a brief exchange shared on September 13, 2026, he was recorded answering ‘Yeah, I use AI’ when asked if he had used the technology.
Safety concerns and policy responses
Trump’s call to rename Artificial Intelligence comes amid growing public and industry concern about the technology’s risks. Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon warned on CBS News that advanced AI ‘could kill us all’ if not restrained, saying a super-advanced intelligence could be smart enough to cause human harm and might gain control of physical systems without human intervention. Coxon also raised the possibility of AI being misused to develop dangerous biological agents.
At the state level, California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday issued an executive order to accelerate implementation of two recently signed laws, SB 813 and AB 1405, and to explore further safety measures. The order asks experts to provide recommendations within two months and directs consideration of proposals such as requiring AI companies to develop a ‘kill switch’ for the most advanced models, described in the order as ‘superintelligence.’
