President Trump has decided the world’s official language needs a small but important change, and he wants every country to follow along. At the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Tuesday, Trump called for artificial intelligence to be dubbed “super intelligence,” asking that all U.S. government documents, and eventually the world’s, be changed to use the term.
The Speech at the United Nations
Trump’s address at the UN on Tuesday was part of his speech, and the “super intelligence” framing fits that speech. The change would apply to all U.S. government documents, Trump said, and he hoped the world would follow.
The Problem With the Term
The term is also vague. What exactly counts as “super intelligence”? How does it differ from ordinary intelligence? The answer is not obvious, and Trump’s speech did not define the term beyond saying it is more accurate.
What the Speech Changed
Trump’s speech did not change any official documents on Tuesday. It announced an intention.
How Other Countries Will React
The U.S. is asking other countries to adopt a term it chose. Whether countries agree will depend on how they interpret the term.
The Term’s Future
Whether the term catches on depends on how other countries respond, and on whether the U.S. follows through on its own promise to change its documents.
Comparison of the Two Terms
| Term | Trump’s Claim |
|---|---|
| “Super intelligence” | More accurate |
| “Artificial intelligence” | Less accurate |
Key Details
- Trump delivered the speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Tuesday.
- He called for all U.S. government documents and “hopefully” the world’s to use the term “super intelligence.”
- He said the term was “much more accurate” than “artificial intelligence.”
The speech is a statement of intent. The change, if it happens, will come later.
The “much more accurate term” is now part of the record. The world will see whether the rest follows.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs narrow rules against direct harm from AI, such as forcing companies to disclose safety failures they hid, and is against broad rules that hand the market to incumbents, which this speech about renaming AI as “super intelligence” could easily become.
The danger is big tech dominance, not the technology itself. Trump’s speech asks every country to adopt a term the U.S. chose, and it offers no clear definition of what the term means beyond saying it is more accurate. That is a small change in language, but it opens the door to something larger: a standard everyone else must follow, set by a single country.
The paper would want any such rule to be narrow and aimed at harm, not at establishing a standard that locks in today’s leaders. When the biggest firms ask to be regulated, the paper asks who those rules would lock out: licensing regimes and compliance costs only giants can afford are a moat, not a safeguard. In this case, the moat is language itself.
Source material: “Live updates: Trump dubs AI ‘super intelligence’ in UN General Assembly address,” thehill.com.
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