U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while sitting alongside NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang (left) and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk (right) during a meeting with technology executives on artificial intelligence in the East Room of the White House on September 29, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Kent Nishimura | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he has signed a document “officially” changing the name of artificial intelligence to “superintelligence,” a move to force a rebranding of an industry he has firmly embraced amid growing American concerns about rapidly advancing technology.
Speaking to reporters on the White House grounds, surrounded by tech executives, Trump suggested that a document claiming the new company name had been signed by a number of AI and tech giant leaders who had been summoned to the White House for a lunch with the president.
“Today we officially changed our name,” Trump said. He was not initially expected to attend the unusual news conference outside the West Wing of the White House. “This name has been officially changed by some of the greatest, brightest, and greatest people in the world.”
When asked if the document had any binding force, President Trump said, “It has moral binding force.”
Details about the document were unclear. The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for additional information.
Last week, President Trump crowdsourced a new name for AI, asking his social media followers whether they preferred “SUPER INTELLIGENCE” or “SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCE.”
This is the latest name change attempt for Trump, who has focused intensely on branding throughout his business and political career. Last month, during the latest escalation in the deterioration of relations between the United States and Canada, President Trump signed an executive order purporting to rename Lake Ontario “Lake of America.”
He took similar steps shortly after taking office last year, signing an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), who was also present at Tuesday’s luncheon, told reporters before Trump appeared that attendees had signed a “Declaration of Principles” titled “White House Agreement on Superintelligence: Joint Commitment on Frontier SI Responsibilities.”
He summarized the document, saying it included “voluntary” commitments “on behalf of the industry” as well as “robust internal controls” and “multi-layered internal and external reviews.”
“Safety and innovation are not mutually exclusive pursuits,” Johnson said.
But when asked why people shouldn’t be concerned about AI and why there shouldn’t be government-mandated safety barriers, Trump said, “Because we have people in our country who love our country and who love the world very much.”
Trump also shrugged when asked if he was concerned that his support for AI and data centers could hurt the Republican Party in the upcoming midterm elections.
“I just have to do the right thing,” he said.
Johnson said Republican incumbents agree that the United States cannot afford to lose its advantage over China in the race for AI supremacy.
Recent polls show that a majority of Americans express fear and concern about AI and disapprove of President Trump’s handling of the issue.
A Quinnipiac University poll released early Tuesday afternoon found just 25% of respondents approve of the president’s response to AI, while 58% disapprove. This is lower than President Trump’s approval ratings for the Iran war (28%), the economy (31%), and U.S.-China policy (34%) in the same poll. The survey was conducted from September 24th to September 27th and has a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.
Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized President Trump for not being serious about the risks posed by AI.
“The companies building some of the most powerful AI systems are warning that technology is advancing faster than our safeguards. The president’s response? Change the name and tell the companies developing them to self-regulate.” Warner said in a statement. “But changing what we call artificial intelligence does nothing to address the very real risks associated with increasingly powerful AI systems.”
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