Trump's Super Intelligence Rebrand: Tech Leaders Sign Accord Amid Public Skepticism

Trump's AI Rebrand Becomes Official Policy

President Donald Trump has formalized his controversial push to rename artificial intelligence to Super Intelligence through an executive order directing the entire executive branch to adopt the new terminology1

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. The rebrand, which began with a Truth Social poll on September 19, culminated in a White House summit where Trump gathered major tech industry leaders to sign the White House Accord on Super Intelligence2

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. The president's stated rationale centers on his dislike of the word "artificial," which he called "a terrible word" and claimed makes the technology sound like a hoax1

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. Leaders from Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, xAI and Nvidia all signed the accord during Tuesday's summit2

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Tech Leaders Show Mixed Support for Trump's AI Rebrand

Elon Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang emerged as the most visible supporters of the Super Intelligence terminology. At a panel discussion, both executives nodded along when moderator Gavin Baker said "I guess we're now calling this Super Intelligence, which I think is actually good branding"1

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. Musk posted simply "Super Intelligence" on X, while Jensen Huang issued a longer statement using the term three times, including "The future of Super Intelligence will be shaped not only by what it can do, but by the confidence it earns"1

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. Huang has extended the label to physical infrastructure, referring to data centers as superintelligence factories2

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. However, some tech executives who appeared with Trump continued using "AI" in their remarks, and company representatives declined to comment on the record about the name change2

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Public Perception of AI Remains Skeptical Despite Rebrand

The artificial intelligence to super intelligence transition faces significant public resistance. A YouGov poll conducted this week found that 53% of respondents considered "artificial intelligence" the better term, versus just 9% who preferred Super Intelligence2

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. The rebrand appears aimed at addressing AI's toxic branding, as leaders in D.C. and Silicon Valley worry that public backlash against AI and data centers will hamper development of the technology2

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. A recent Quinnipiac survey found 58% of respondents disapprove of Trump's handling of artificial intelligence, versus just 25% who approve3

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. Communities are building bipartisan coalitions against data centers due to their massive energy consumption, younger workers remain anxious about career prospects, and AI insiders continue warning about existential risks2

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Industry Adoption Remains Limited Beyond Government Contexts

While the executive order mandates federal government usage, widespread adoption across the tech industry appears unlikely. AI company representatives said their companies were generally supportive of the rebrand and plan to use "SI" when meeting with the president and working with federal agencies, but they don't expect it to catch fire outside those contexts2

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. One source compared the situation to Trump's renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, which many oil executives adopted in external communications and internal communications2

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. Public reaction on social media has been overwhelmingly negative, with even some Trump supporters expressing frustration. Far-right White House correspondent Natalie Winters said "Hammering 'Super Intelligence' and playing all those games is not what people voted for"1

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. The rebrand's long-term impact on addressing AI doomerism and concerns about the technology spiraling beyond human control remains uncertain, as changing terminology does little to address underlying public anxieties about job displacement and existential threats posed by rapidly advancing AI systems.