A month after the start of Donald Trump’s campaign in favor of the term ‘superintelligence,’ the vocabulary of the technology sector remains far from uniform. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have adopted this label, while the CEOs of Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet continue to use ‘AI.’ Experts accuse the American president of seeking to obscure the real limits and risks of the technology while exaggerating its capabilities.
- Trump wants federal agencies to replace «artificial intelligence» with «superintelligence» in all official communications.
- Musk and Zuckerberg adopt the new term, while Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet keep using «AI».
- Experts accuse Trump of hiding the real limits and risks of the technology.
- Legally, superintelligence still covers existing AI systems, and a new federal definition is being drafted.
On September 29, 2026, Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing federal agencies to abandon the phrase ‘artificial intelligence’ in favor of ‘superintelligence’ in all official policies and communications. At the 81st United Nations General Assembly, he had told his counterparts that using the word ‘artificial’ suggests the technology is fake. Since the signing, the government has been modifying official documents and websites, and his ministers have immediately adopted the new term. Donald Trump considers anyone who does not follow this injunction an ‘enemy,’ a decision widely criticized in the tech community, where some experts see it as a choice favoring Big Tech.
Musk and Zuckerberg, the Most Visible Allies
Among industry leaders, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have shown themselves to be the most aligned with the presidential line during the presentation of their third-quarter 2026 results. Elon Musk decided to rename the division developing the company’s Grok AI model to SpaceXSI, and he also mentioned the new terminology at a Tesla conference dedicated to humanoid robotics. Mark Zuckerberg adopted this direction during Meta’s earnings conference on October 21, 2026, reaffirming his group’s goal to ‘deliver a personal superintelligence to everyone.’ He relies on the prior creation of a division called Meta Superintelligence Labs.
Other business leaders have supported inauguration ceremonies or removed internal programs contested by the administration, but Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg remain the president’s most visible allies on this issue. The executive order does not require rewriting existing documents: it exempts regulations, presidential acts, contracts, grants, and other already-published historical documents.
General Reserve Among Other Giants
According to a recent CNBC analysis, many major industry leaders maintain traditional terms in their public remarks. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy used the label ‘AI’ more than a dozen times during his introductory remarks. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai noted that investments in AI continued to drive user growth, while Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reaffirmed that designing AI to serve users remained one of the group’s strategic pillars. Without directly opposing the White House, Microsoft nevertheless used the term superintelligence eight times in its annual report.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna combined both labels during his company’s earnings call, stating: ‘technological innovation in hybrid infrastructure and superintelligence leads to better business performance.’ Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan used the term in another context, attributing the supply shortage in the chip sector to ‘unprecedented demand’ for this technology. Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks, and Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, praised the presidential order.
A Debate on the Meaning of Words
Linguist Naomi Susan Baron described this attempt at political redefinition as ‘naively optimistic and dangerous.’ Computational linguistics professor Emily Bender, for her part, reminds us that ‘languages belong to their communities.’ In the scientific community, ‘superintelligence’ refers to a hypothetical machine far exceeding human cognitive faculties, a stage beyond ‘artificial general intelligence’ (AGI), that is, a theoretical point where systems would achieve overall mastery equal to or greater than that of human intelligence.
Legally, the meaning remains unchanged. Unless otherwise provided by law, superintelligence encompasses systems already covered by the existing legal definition of AI. The order gives the president’s science and technology advisor 60 days to submit a draft legislative text, which must assess whether a federal definition of AI should modify, expand, or replace the current definition.
