If you thought the strangest part of the AI boom would be the technology itself, Donald Trump would like a word. Over the weekend, the president suggested "Artificial Intelligence" is simply the wrong name for the thing reshaping the economy, and he's standing up a new government body to go along with whatever name wins out.
Yes, really.
On Saturday, September 19, Trump posted on Truth Social that "many people think that the words 'Artificial Intelligence' are inaccurate, and very ineloquent, relative to AI, or Artificial Intelligence," according to TechCrunch. He then launched a poll asking followers to pick a replacement: Superior Intelligence, Extreme Intelligence, or Supreme Intelligence. As of publication, the poll was still open.
A couple hours later, Trump pivoted to something bigger than branding. He claimed that the growing debate over AI safety is a Democratic hoax, lumping it in with what he called previous hoaxes, "RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, Global Warming, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2, Men in Women's Sports, [and] Transgender for Everyone," per his own post as quoted by TechCrunch. He offered no evidence for the claim, and both outlets note that concern over AI and data centers has come from Republicans and Democrats alike. New York recently became the first state to halt permits for large data center projects, a fact that undercuts the idea that this is a one-party phenomenon.
Trump then announced he's creating an "AI Force," modeled on the Space Force he established during his first term, and said he'll soon name an "AI czar" to run it. His exact words, per Engadget: "We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry. Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!" Neither Trump's post nor the reporting from TechCrunch or Engadget specified what the AI Force or the czar will actually do.
This isn't happening in a vacuum. Just before Trump's posts, an AI researcher left Anthropic, saying leading AI companies "earnestly believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade" and are "gambling with our lives," according to TechCrunch. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei followed with a proposal to "pace the frontier," an idea that reportedly got nods from OpenAI's Sam Altman and SpaceX's Elon Musk. That's a notable moment: competitors publicly entertaining the idea of slowing down.
Trump's response is to frame any slowdown talk as sabotage. Engadget reports he's specifically worried that reining in US AI development would let China catch up, a concern he's expected to raise directly when he meets his Chinese counterpart the following week. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang backed Trump's framing on stage at the All-In Summit, calling the backlash a "hoax" and declaring "we're not going to let" a slowdown happen, per TechCrunch.
So the AI Force lands in the middle of a real industry rift: safety-minded voices asking for brakes, and a White House aligned with the accelerationist camp, at least rhetorically.
Practically, this touches anyone building, regulating, or living near AI infrastructure. Data centers have already drawn bipartisan scrutiny over power use, water use, and local impact, which is part of why Trump claims the "attack" on them "largely failed" once communities reportedly saw the wealth and prestige tied to hosting them, in his telling. Now that attention has apparently shifted to AI itself, in his framing.
It's also worth remembering this isn't Trump's first AI czar. Venture capitalist David Sacks held that role, covering both AI and crypto, before stepping down earlier this year to co-chair the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, per TechCrunch. Whoever takes the new AI czar title, and whatever the AI Force ends up doing, will be operating in a policy space that's shifted meaningfully since Sacks left.
Renaming AI to "Supreme Intelligence" changes nothing about what the technology does, how it's trained, or who it might put out of work. It's a branding exercise dressed up as substance, and it conveniently distracts from a genuinely uncomfortable moment where an Anthropic researcher just quit over existential-risk concerns and the industry's own CEO started talking about pacing.
Calling the backlash a "hoax" is also a curious move considering the backlash includes Republican-led states pumping the brakes on data centers, not just Democrats. If anything, the AI Force announcement looks like an attempt to seize the narrative before Trump's meeting with China, turning a safety conversation into a competitiveness one. That's a legitimate strategic argument. It's a different thing than evidence the concerns are fake.
AI doesn't need a new name. It needs clear answers about safety, labor impact, and regulation, and right now the White House is offering a poll and a yet-to-be-defined agency instead. Watch for who gets named AI czar and what authority the AI Force actually has. That will tell you far more than any Truth Social poll ever could.
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*Disclosure: This post contains no sponsored content or affiliate links. All facts sourced from TechCrunch and Engadget reporting as cited above.*