US President Donald Trump has said the United States government will begin referring to artificial intelligence as “super intelligence,” or “SI,” during his address to the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Trump made the announcement on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, while discussing the rapid development of artificial intelligence and his administration’s approach to the technology.
He argued that the word “artificial” makes the technology sound less authentic, saying he preferred the term “super intelligence.” Reuters reported that Trump said US government documents would use the new terminology from that point forward.
“From this point forward, all of the United States documents … will be changed to use the much more accurate term, super as opposed to artificial.”
Trump also suggested that he hoped the terminology would eventually be adopted internationally, describing the new abbreviation as “SI.”
The announcement came as Trump used his UN speech to outline his administration’s position on artificial intelligence. He said the United States was leading China and other countries in the technology and argued against measures that could, in his view, unnecessarily restrict its development.
Trump has previously used the phrase “super intelligence” when discussing AI. On September 21, he wrote on Truth Social that he would encourage “AI or, SI (SUPER INTELLIGENCE),” while saying the Justice Department and other law-enforcement agencies could intervene if necessary.
The terminology also follows earlier comments by Trump in December 2025, when he suggested that he had thought AI should be called “SI,” although he did not formally adopt the term at that time.
However, it was not immediately clear whether Trump’s UN statement represented a formal legal or administrative change across the US government. The Associated Press reported that no clear official order implementing the change had yet been identified.
The proposed terminology comes amid an expanding international debate over the development, regulation and safety of advanced AI systems. Earlier this week, leaders and representatives from more than 20 countries and institutions called for AI to remain under human direction and supervision and for international standards governing the technology.
For now, “artificial intelligence” remains the established technical term, while “super intelligence” is the terminology Trump said his administration would use in US government documents.