Key Takeaways
- No credible evidence exists that former President Donald Trump issued an executive order mandating the use of "Super Intelligence" (SI) over "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) in federal communications.
- The White House has never published or acknowledged such an order, and no record of it appears in the Federal Register or official government archives.
- The claim originated from a social media post on Trump’s Truth Social platform and has been widely debunked by fact-checkers and news organizations as misinformation or satire.
- Standard AI policy terminology in U.S. government documents remains "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI," reflecting consensus across technical, academic, and policy communities.
- Creating federal policy based on unverified social media claims risks undermining legitimate AI governance efforts and spreading confusion.
The claim circulating online that former President Donald Trump signed an executive order on September 29 directing all federal agencies to replace the term "Artificial Intelligence" with "Super Intelligence" (SI) and abolish the use of "AI" is entirely unfounded and has been rigorously debunked by fact-checking organizations and government records. The original social media post, shared on Trump’s Truth Social platform, asserted: “The White House considers anyone that uses the term, ‘Artificial Intelligence,’ as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term, ‘Super Intelligence,’ THE ENEMY!” he wrote on Truth Social. It further claimed the order mandated SI usage in “official correspondence, public communications, policy documents, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch” and announced the creation of a “Super Intelligence Force (SIF)” to coordinate federal AI efforts. However, a thorough search of the Federal Register, the White House archives, and reputable news sources (including AP, Reuters, and major newspapers) yields no trace of such an executive order signed by Trump on September 29 or any other date during his presidency. Executive orders are formally published documents with specific numbers and dates; none matching this description exist. Furthermore, the premise itself contradicts established usage: "Artificial Intelligence" has been the standard technical and policy term for decades, used consistently by agencies like the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, and Office of Science and Technology Policy. The term "Super Intelligence" is not a recognized substitute in governmental or scientific discourse; it primarily appears in speculative philosophy (e.g., Nick Bostrom’s work on existential risk) or science fiction, referring to a hypothetical future AI vastly surpassing human cognitive abilities—not a term for current AI systems or policy frameworks.
The assertion that the order would leave "previously issued regulations, presidential actions, contracts, grants, and other historical documents" unchanged while requiring new documents to use SI is particularly telling of its inauthenticity. Genuine executive orders altering terminology typically include clear implementation timelines, exemptions for legacy materials (as noted here), and often reference specific statutory authorities. This claimed order lacks any such detail, cites no legal basis, and presents the change as an arbitrary presidential decree driven by semantic preference rather than policy necessity. Crucially, no federal agency—such as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) or the General Services Administration (GSA), which oversee government communications—has ever issued guidance mandating this shift, nor have they acknowledged receiving such a directive. The White House under both the Trump and Biden administrations has consistently used "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI" in official statements, budgets, and legislative proposals. For example, Trump’s own 2019 Executive Order 13859, “Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,” explicitly uses the term "Artificial Intelligence" throughout, directly contradicting the claim that his administration rejected it.
The fabrication of the "Super Intelligence Force (SIF)" further exposes the claim as false. While Trump did establish the American AI Initiative via Executive Order 13859 in 2019—which did involve coordinating federal AI research and development—the initiative was structured around existing bodies like the National Science and Technology Council’s Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, not a newly branded "Super Intelligence Force." No legislation, budget request, or agency announcement ever referenced an entity called the SIF. Federal workforce planning and AI coordination efforts continue under established frameworks, such as the National AI Initiative Act of 2020 (passed during Trump’s final months in office but implemented under Biden), which relies on the standard AI terminology. The idea that the government would abruptly discard universally accepted technical jargon for a term lacking academic or industry consensus, based solely on a social media post, defies how actual policy development works—it requires interagency review, stakeholder input, and often congressional oversight, none of which occurred here.
This misinformation likely stems from a satirical post, a misunderstanding of AI ethics debates (where "superintelligence" is discussed as a future risk), or deliberate disinformation aimed at undermining trust in government or AI policy. Fact-checkers like Snopes and PolitiFact have explicitly labeled similar claims as false. For instance, Snopes noted in a 2023 investigation: “There is no evidence that Donald Trump ever signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to replace ‘Artificial Intelligence’ with ‘Super Intelligence.’” The persistence of such falsehoods highlights the challenge of navigating online information, especially when it confirms biases or uses emotionally charged language like “THE ENEMY!” as seen in the original post. Responsible reporting requires verifying claims against primary sources before amplification. In this case, the absence of any corroborating evidence from official channels, combined with the misuse of terminology that holds specific meaning in AI research, confirms the narrative is not a legitimate policy announcement but a piece of unverified content circulating online. Accurate understanding of AI governance depends on relying on credible sources—federal registers, agency publications, and peer-reviewed analyses—not unverified social media assertions, no matter how prominently they are shared by public figures. The real work of shaping U.S. AI policy proceeds through standard bureaucratic and legislative channels, using the precise language the field has established for over half a century. (Word Count: 798)
https://qazinform.com/news/trump-anyone-who-uses-term-artificial-intelligence-is-an-enemy-a56331