The Great Rebrand
Real talk: if you’ve been following the AI news cycle, you know the vibes have been chaotic. Just weeks ago, President Donald Trump was aggressively anti-regulation, claiming that concerns about AI risks were basically just plants from political opponents. But this week, the plot thickens. In a massive pivot, he hosted tech power brokers—including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei—to sign a "Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities."
But here’s the kicker: by presidential decree, the federal government is ditching the term "artificial intelligence" entirely. It is now officially "super intelligence."
Is it actually a thing?
If you’re looking for legal teeth here, don’t hold your breath. The pact is entirely voluntary and deeply non-binding. President Trump’s defense? He called it "morally binding," which is a term that pretty much means nothing in a courtroom. As the TechCrunch Equity podcast team pointed out, they even managed to misspell "United States" on the actual document, which suggests the whole thing was rushed, lowkey sloppy, and mostly theater.
Why it matters
Critics argue this is purely a massive PR stunt. By rebranding "AI" to "super intelligence," the administration might be trying to flip the script. The narrative? AI is scary, job-stealing, and dangerous, but "super intelligence" sounds shiny and safe.
It’s also worth noting that the internal drama isn't over. While tech CEOs are back at the table, the Department of Defense is reportedly still keeping its distance from companies like Anthropic, viewing them as a national security risk. For now, it’s giving major "we're trying to look busy" energy without actually changing the underlying reality of how these companies operate.
