In recent weeks, a furious conversation has erupted over the future of artificial intelligence, with tech industry insiders and countless public advocates calling on policymakers to intervene and impose new AI guardrails to prevent disasters. Donald Trump is clearly aware of the concerns about possible threats, and he’s heard the demands for safeguards.
The good news for reform advocates is that the president has endorsed a specific change to the status quo. The bad news is, the only change the Republican is prepared to make is subjecting AI to a rebranding campaign.
Trump declared earlier this month that he intended to do nothing about potential AI abuses except hope for the best. In fact, the Republican went so far as to repeatedly insist that concerns about AI were, as far as he’s concerned, little more than a “hoax.”
As last week came to an end, however, he shifted his focus a bit, complaining that the literal words “artificial intelligence” were, as he argued online, “very ineloquent.”
Days later, the president addressed the United Nations General Assembly and made an announcement of sorts.
“From this point forward, all of United States documents, and hopefully the world’s, will be changed to use the much more accurate term ‘super’ as opposed to ‘artificial.’ So it’s ‘super intelligence,’” Trump said.
The Republican said he considered the change necessary because “the word ‘artificial’ makes … it sound fake, and it is not fake; it’s actually amazing.”
Time will tell whether “super intelligence” catches on with the public — if I were a betting man, I’d say the odds aren’t great — but the developments served as a timely reminder that the incumbent American president may not care much about governing, policymaking, current events, the details of legislative proposals or even the basic functions of the state, but this guy cares an enormous amount about branding.
Indeed, it was less than a month ago when Trump, who presumably had more important things to do, decided to devote some time and effort to rebranding Lake Ontario.
That was ridiculous, of course, but it was hardly unusual. He also wants to rebrand Immigration and Customs Enforcement (the president apparently thinks “NICE” sounds better than “ICE”), the Gulf of Mexico, his White House ballroom vanity project, the Department of Defense, his “triumphal arch,” his mass deportation crusade, the Strait of Hormuz, the Kennedy Center and his wildly unsuccessful “Big Beautiful Bill,” among other things.
About a month into his first term as president, Trump boasted at a meeting with business leaders, “I’m good at branding.” I’m not at all convinced that this claim has ever been true — “super intelligence” isn’t exactly evidence of genius marketing — but nearly a decade later, I’m stuck on a related question: Maybe he could try being good at something related to his actual job?
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