Trump rebrands AI as super intelligence as tech leaders sign voluntary pact

AI gets a new government label

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that changes the terminology used by official U.S. representatives from artificial intelligence to super intelligence, according to TechCrunch's Equity podcast. The announcement came as Trump hosted major technology executives and discussed AI safety.

The shift followed recent criticism from Trump of regulation and attempts to constrain AI. TechCrunch's Kirsten Korosec said the executive order does little to regulate the industry and called part of it theater.

Executives sign a voluntary commitment

Among the executives at the meeting were Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. They signed the Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities. TechCrunch's Sean O'Kane described the agreement as deeply non-binding and completely voluntary, while Trump said he considered it morally binding.

O'Kane also said the agreement misspelled the United States and questioned whether it would have a meaningful effect. Anthony Ha said the need for the gesture was significant even if he did not expect the pact itself to produce major changes.

Anthropic and the White House

Korosec said the relationship between the administration and Anthropic changed after Amodei was invited to a 10 p.m. dinner with Trump and then attended the broader luncheon days later. O'Kane said the Defense Department remained strongly critical of Anthropic and continued to view it as a national security risk.

Ha said different parts of the White House still appeared divided. The Treasury Secretary was supportive of Anthropic, while the Defense Department was unhappy with conditions the company sought to place on the use of its technology.

A rebranding effort around AI

Korosec argued that the meeting's main significance was a rebranding of AI. She said the message was: "AI is going to kill us, it's scary, it is going to take jobs, but super intelligence is not." Korosec clarified that this was not her personal belief, but her reading of the message. Trump also announced a new Super Intelligence Force that weekend.