When American policy adopts the lexicon of apocalyptic fiction, it does not calm the public; it surrenders the dominant narrative to China. It can be fixed with one word.
For weeks, the narrative that “AI will kill you” dominated global news, sparked by a tech researcher and aligning with a 2014 publication, “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies,” regarding existential risk.
We saw a media panic reminiscent of the 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast. Here, the public is genuinely fearing that the computer in their home will become HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. In reality, artificial intelligence is not going to kill you; it is software.
Superiority in AI is a matter of national security
With AI integrated into virtually every aspect of life, malicious programming can compromise financial markets, healthcare and medical research, education, food and water supplies, energy grids, transportation, global communications, supply chains, government operations, and warfare. Consequences cross borders and touch every home. Nefarious human programming creates multidimensional damage that scales globally. The consequences are real, not artificial. America’s superiority in tech intelligence is essential.
Understanding that reality, President Donald Trump stated that the use of the word artificial makes intelligence sound fake. His point is well taken, although the word was specifically selected to differentiate software technology from human intelligence. If Beijing’s edge comes from cheap models built on American innovation, then “artificial” is precisely the word for China’s models.
We’ve declared AI, super duper
Trump is on a mission to ensure American superiority dominates the global engine of innovation. To that point, on September 29th, the President signed an executive order renaming American “AI – Artificial Intelligence” as “SI – Super Intelligence.” While the word states superiority, it inadvertently embraces the exact terminology global alarmists were using to predict human extinction.
In a global economy, are we inadvertently isolating ourselves?
“SI” creates an immediate administrative disconnect that isolates American policy from every international treaty, trade standard, and allied framework. Superiority does not occur in isolation. It also gifts Beijing the established global “AI” brand, entirely unchallenged.
How do we keep ‘AI’ and drop what’s ‘artificial’?
Science and technology have already answered this. The words “Accelerated” and “Amplified” are both terms with strong relevance, which would retain superiority and the “AI” distinction.
Science and technology have already identified AI
AI is not artificial, and it is not super. It is the amplification of human potential through accelerated movement, and we are the force driving it. While AI functions better than a human alone, it is inferior to human intelligence on its own; humans are what make it super. Intelligence is not simply an accumulation of data.
Accelerated intelligence: The physics of velocity
Acceleration is not something an object does to itself; it requires force applied from the outside. F=ma. The computer is the mass; human ingenuity is the force. Statutorily defining AI as “Accelerated Intelligence” preserves the “A” in AI while placing human force at the center of its innovation. It aligns directly with Pillar I of the President’s AI Action Plan (“Accelerate AI Innovation”) and contrasts American ingenuity against Beijing’s “artificial” imitations.
Amplified intelligence: The legacy of expansion
Steve Jobs pioneered personal computing in 1976 by declaring he was building tools to “amplify human ability”. Fifty years later, that foundational American concept remains the gold standard for human-machine innovation. “Amplified Intelligence” reframes the technology as expanding human potential.
Either term keeps the letter and the brand
The order directs every executive branch department to replace “Artificial Intelligence” with “Super Intelligence” in official documents. Existing contracts and regulations remain untouched, resulting in two names for the same technology.
While the order is already signed, the statutory definition is still unwritten. The Assistant to the President for Science and Technology has been tasked with proposing a federal definition within 60 days. There is still time to create an official definition that truly reflects American superiority and retains global relevance.
AI ISN’T BECOMING SENTIENT — IT’S BECOMING YOU
“Accelerated” indicates forward movement; “Amplified” indicates unlimited expansion.
Either one delivers on the President’s directive for a bold, dominant national brand, without surrendering our global acronym or feeding existential panic. This is a pro-business, tough-on-China maneuver.
Jacqueline Cartier is a corporate and legislative strategist focused on communications, crisis leadership, public trust, and emerging technologies that shape human behavior and decision-making. Follow her on LinkedIn.