President Trump announced Tuesday that his administration will soon ban the term “artificial intelligence” from official documents, escalating his push to rebrand the technology as “super intelligence.”
The president made the declaration in a Truth Social post that took aim at The Wall Street Journal for continuing to use the more familiar phrase.
“When will The Wall Street Journal start calling Artificial Intelligence (AI), a very bad and inaccurate name, SI (Super Intelligence), the name which virtually everyone else is using, or soon will be,” Trump wrote.
He continued: “In short order, we will be officially BANNING the term, ‘AI/Artificial Intelligence,’ in all relevant documents, and everything else, due to its inaccuracy.”
The president did not specify which documents the ban would cover, how it would be enforced or when it would take effect. It is also unclear what “everything else” would include.
Tuesday’s announcement builds on a policy Trump already set in motion. On Sept. 29, he signed an executive order directing federal agencies to use the term “super intelligence” when referring to the technology. That same day, he hosted tech executives at the White House for a meeting on super intelligence.
Some industry leaders have embraced the new language, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Most news organizations, however, have stuck with “AI,” a term that has been in widespread use for decades.
Trump has been promoting the phrase for weeks. He first floated it in a poll on Truth Social last month and later said Chinese leader Xi Jinping liked the term as well.
The president has made the push personal. In an earlier post, he wrote that the White House considers anyone who uses the term “Artificial Intelligence” rather than “Super Intelligence” to be “THE ENEMY!”
The change marks a notable shift for an administration that has used the term “artificial intelligence” in its own major policy moves. Last year, the White House released its “AI Action Plan,” a blueprint aimed at keeping the United States ahead of China in the global technology race.
In December 2025, Trump also signed an executive order titled “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” which sought to establish a single national standard and limit what the administration described as a patchwork of burdensome state regulations.
Supporters of the rebrand argue that the old label fails to capture how powerful the technology has become and that the United States should set the terms of the debate as it competes with Beijing.
Critics, including at least one artificial intelligence expert, have pushed back, arguing that “super intelligence” is a term researchers typically use to describe a hypothetical future system that surpasses human abilities across the board, not the tools available today.
The announcement comes one week before the midterm elections, as the administration continues to tout its record on technology, energy and economic growth. Artificial intelligence has become a major issue in Washington, with debates over data centers, energy demand, jobs and national security.
The White House did not immediately provide details on how the ban would be carried out.
Whatever the outcome, Trump appears determined to make “super intelligence” the official language of the federal government, and he is putting the media on notice that he expects them to follow suit.
