The White House now wants everyone to say “super intelligence” instead of AI, and it just formed a Super Intelligence Force to run the show. President Trump announced the task force on Sunday, Oct. 4, in a Truth Social post. He promised to “ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence.”
Yes, the same chatbots you use to draft emails just got a promotion. Here is what actually changed, and what did not.
Who Sits on the Super Intelligence Force
Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton is at the helm, according to CBS News. Both CBS and NBC had reported he was expected to become the administration’s AI czar.
Other members include FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson and Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for research and engineering. The group reports to Trump and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, per NBC News.
The Super Intelligence Force has one job: coordinate federal outreach to consumers, public interest groups, religious organizations, critical infrastructure providers and what the administration calls “Super Intelligence Companies.” That is a long guest list for one task force.
The Trump AI Rebrand: One Word Changed, Nothing Else
The task force follows an executive order Trump signed at a White House AI summit. Agencies must now use “super intelligence” in official communications in place of the technologies covered by the existing legal definition of AI, PolitiFact reports.
Trump took the new name on the road at a San Antonio rally on Oct. 7. “We’re getting rid of artificial intelligence and we’re changing it to superintelligence,” he said, per Fox News.
Here’s the thing: the industry already uses “superintelligence” for something very different. It means AI that outthinks humans in nearly every field, and experts generally agree no system is there yet. The order’s version simply relabels today’s tools. Same software, bigger word.
The rebrand also fits a pattern. Trump has already backed a full-speed push in America’s AI race, and renaming the technology is the latest move in that campaign.
The Accord With Teeth Missing
At the summit, tech leaders signed the voluntary White House Accord on Super Intelligence. Trump called it “morally binding.” Reporting from Yahoo Finance says signers included Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei. A full roster has not been confirmed, though.
“Morally binding” is doing a lot of work, because the pledge is non-binding, TechCrunch notes. It also reportedly included an impressive typo.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) was less diplomatic. At a Senate hearing on Sept. 30, he called the pledge “worse than ineffectual,” saying it has no teeth. For the Super Intelligence Force, that is an awkward starting point.
The AI Task Force Faces a Louder Safety Debate
Trump has brushed off calls from AI executives to slow down and called warnings of AI dominating humans a “hoax.” The public is not so sure. A September poll found 68% support a bill requiring a slowdown and ban, according to PolitiFact. That bill, H.R. 10538, the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act of 2026, is pending in the House with no vote scheduled.
Meanwhile, the industry is testifying under oath. On Oct. 5, senior leaders from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta appeared at a New York City Council hearing. One former OpenAI and Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, said it is “more likely than not” that humanity loses control of AI. That is one witness’s opinion, not a consensus, but it landed in a room full of lawmakers.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Fortune his company will not go public in 2026, calling it “an ill-advised moment to go public.” He also said OpenAI has paused work for a few weeks when model capability outran safety concerns. Money is part of this story too, since AI chip financing deals have hit $90 billion.
Quantum Computing Had a Busy Week Too
While the super intelligence rebrand grabbed the headlines, quantum computing kept quietly stacking up news. A few items worth knowing:
- Federal money: The National Science Foundation committed $290 million to quantum research institutes, per a TipRanks recap. We could not find an NSF release, so treat the figure as reported, not confirmed.
- A government roadmap: The Department of Energy released a national quantum computing roadmap targeting error-corrected quantum computing by 2028, according to Quantum Computing Report.
- Real estate: Albuquerque opened a 35,000-square-foot quantum lab on Sept. 29. The Qubit Report says Diraq, IonQ, QuEra and both national labs are among the tenants.
- Lab results: Oak Ridge cut a fluid-dynamics circuit from about 2 million gates to 91,000.
Researchers are also making big claims. University of Surrey scientists proposed a superfluid-helium qubit that could, by their calculations, have error rates roughly 100 times lower than conventional designs. It is a proposal, not a built device. Experiments still have to prove it. For a look at hardware you can actually use today, see how Japan opened a real quantum computer to the world through the cloud.
What Comes Next for the Super Intelligence Force
The Super Intelligence Force still needs a charter and a clearer mandate. Congress has to decide whether a voluntary accord is enough, and the House has a ban bill sitting on the calendar. The New York City Council may act after its hearing, though no timeline has surfaced.
So the real question is simple. When the government renames the technology, does anyone actually regulate it? On that, the paperwork is still blank.
