Trump decrees era of 'Super Intelligence' upon us

Federal paperwork to be pulped as agencies told to forget the old name, while critics ask who owns all those .si domains

According to the US President, the term Artificial Intelligence (AI) is tired while "Super Intelligence" is wired. Trump has issued an executive order to compel the Federal Government to use the new name instead. 

The term Artificial Intelligence was introduced by American computer and cognitive scientist John McCarthy in 1956, although the concept derives at least in part from work by British mathematician Alan Turing published in 1950.

Regardless of its origin, the technology has outgrown the term, and the US, in particular, should adopt a new one, according to the man in the Oval Office.

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“The capabilities of today’s frontier systems do much more than imitate or automate discrete aspects of human intelligence. They increasingly amplify human ingenuity and unlock new forms of creativity, empowering Americans to achieve what was previously impossible across science, medicine, and nearly every other domain of human endeavor," he said in an executive order, which has the power to direct Federal agencies' behavior.

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"As these capabilities continue to improve, they increasingly represent not merely artificial intelligence, but a new era of Super Intelligence,” he added. 

Accordingly, the order directs federal government to “reflect the transformative capabilities of these technologies and the limitless opportunities they create for the American people”.

Trump said that because “Super Intelligence” is more apt for “advancing capabilities of these technologies”, the executive branch should use the terms “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI”. The order says the executive branch “will not acknowledge the usage of 'Artificial Intelligence' and 'AI' in any applicable setting”.

The president also orders that government websites, official correspondence, public communications and policy documents reflect this change.

The question is why the sudden change? It was only in June that Trump issued an executive order to promote “artificial intelligence innovation and security”. It orders the “upgrading of American systems for advanced AI” and promises Federal Government access to “frontier models”.

We’re guessing all that paperwork will now have to be pulped.

Others are speculating about motives aside from any sudden leap forward in technology over the last three months or so.

Posting on X, Adam Cochran, a managing partner at Canadian VC firm Cinneamhain Ventures, claimed the decision to publish the executive order could be linked to investments in the .si domains over the last three months, which he argued would rise in popularity among governments and companies wishing to curry favor with the US administration.

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Although unable to produce categorical evidence that these investments could be linked to the President, his family or business associates, Cochran pointed toward a spike in domain registrations with the suffix .si, including 12,000 MAGA-related domains.

In the few months leading up to the announcement, people also registered more than 10,000 AI-related terms to the .si domains, he claimed, some of which, he added, have now been relisted for millions of dollars.

In the absence of any overriding evidence, a right-thinking person is forced to weigh the most likely explanation, balancing the probability that the US has entered the era of super intelligence and must change its paperwork and website registration accordingly to maintain its technological superiority, against the chance that the executive order is part of a shameless domain-name grift.  ®