US diplomats told to drop 'AI' for 'super intelligence' after Trump's UN remarks
State Department diplomats have been instructed to replace 'artificial intelligence' with 'super intelligence' in communications, following Trump's UN rebranding call.
Diplomats in the State Department's Bureau of International Organization Affairs have been directed to replace all references to "artificial intelligence" with "super intelligence" in official communications, an internal email shows.
The instruction, sent on Tuesday, came shortly after President Donald Trump told the UN General Assembly that he would "officially" rename the technology. The email, titled "Change in Nomenclature AI to SI," was written by Michael Drager, deputy assistant secretary of state for the bureau, which oversees US diplomatic missions to UN and multilateral agencies worldwide.
"Following the president's remarks at the GA today, please change all references of 'Artificial Intelligence' to 'Super Intelligence' in our documents and positions," the email said, adding that "SI" would be used in all remarks, positions and press elements going forward.
In his address, Trump argued that the word "artificial" makes the technology sound fake. "It's actually amazing," he said, adding that US government documents would use "the much more accurate term super as opposed to artificial."
It was not immediately clear whether other State Department bureaus or agencies had issued similar instructions. Such a change would likely require renaming the "AI Force" that Trump announced over the weekend.
On Wednesday, US representatives used the SI term at a UN Security Council meeting on artificial intelligence, where technology executives urged the body to rein in the rapidly developing technology. The rise of AI has prompted warnings from industry leaders and lawmakers about the technology outpacing human control, along with calls for global safeguards.
Trump has resisted efforts to slow AI development through greater government oversight, saying he does not want to hinder industry and that the US must maintain an edge over China. On social media Monday, he said the US was leading China on AI and that he would not "stifle Growth, of something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution, or the Internet, itself."
AI is expected to be a major topic when Trump welcomes Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Washington for a visit beginning Wednesday.