President Donald Trump made an open-ended call to rebrand artificial intelligence on Wednesday evening as he signed three executive orders related to the technology.
“We’re still in the earliest days of one of the most important technological revolutions in the history of the world,” Trump said while speaking at the Winning the AI Race summit at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, before calling for a name change.
“Around the globe, everyone is talking about artificial intelligence. I find that too artificial. I can’t stand it,” he continued. “I don’t even like the name, you know, I don’t like anything that’s artificial. So could we straighten that out? Please? We should change the name. I actually mean that.”
Trump touted the orders written to help establish American dominance against foreign competitors, pointing to China‘s dominance in AI.
“America is the country that started the AI race. And as president of the United States, I’m here today to declare that America is going to win it,” Trump said. “Because we will not allow any foreign nation to beat us.”
The three orders establish fast-track permitting and ensure that the federal government is working to get data centers approved as quickly as possible; promote the export of American AI models abroad; and get “rid of woke” in AI and diversity programs for the industry.
TRUMP FACES CONTINUED LEGAL FIGHTS OVER FIRING INDEPENDENT AGENCY HEADS
“We’re getting along very well with China — a lot of respect for President Xi [Jinping]. We have a great relationship, and we’ll see how it all works out,” Trump said of U.S.-China competition.
Several members of the Trump administration and GOP allies attended the AI event, including: AI czar David Sacks, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and industry leaders such as Jensen Huang CEO of Nvidia and Lisa Su CEO of AMD.