From poll to official language
Trump’s campaign began last month with a poll on Truth Social asking supporters to choose a new name for AI. Days later, at the United Nations General Assembly, he said the US government would replace “AI” with “SI” in its documents. He then formalized the decision in an executive order.
This week, Trump went further, saying he would “OFFICIALLY BAN” the term “AI” in government documents and “everything else.”
The new vocabulary has travelled quickly through the industry:
The language is doing political work
Musk appears to be the most enthusiastic adopter. He retains close ties to the administration and has even acknowledged having “superintelligence psychosis.” Altman, by contrast, has said people will probably keep calling the technology AI.
I think the gap between adopting a word and believing a rename will stick is the important one here. The companies are not describing a new product or capability; they are responding to a change in the political language around the technology. That makes the public embrace of “SI” a signal of alignment, not evidence that the industry has settled on a more useful term.
What remains unaddressed is whether the new label changes anything beyond official documents and public messaging. If people continue to say “AI,” the administration can prohibit the term in its own records, but it cannot make “SI” the ordinary name for the technology by decree. The test is whether the companies keep using it when the political cue is no longer in front of them.
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