The science of superintelligence and why AI is still a useful word - Nature

Email Bluesky Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Whatsapp X Save article View saved research By most researchers’ definitions, superintelligence is an aspirational category of systems, not a reality. Credit: Andrzej Wojcicki/SPL ‘Superintelligence’ has arrived — at least by one definition of the term. Will AI really kill us all? The science behind the hype In an executive order issued on 29 September , US President Donald Trump declared that humanity is in “a new era of Super Intelligence”. The term artificial intelligence is outdated, the order said: “[T]oday’s frontier systems do much more than imitate or automate discrete aspects of human intelligence.” The order also directed federal agencies to use the phrases “Super Intelligence” and “SI” instead of “artificial intelligence” and “AI”. Trump’s declaration has had a mixed reception. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s post on the social-media platform X said: “No more AI. SI. It’s better,” adding that his company SpaceXAI will change its name to SpaceXSI. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, however, continues to use the term AI in his posts. What is superintelligence? Trump’s order defines ‘Super Intelligence’ as “the technologies and systems encompassed by the term ‘artificial intelligence’”. But researchers were using the term superintelligence to refer to hypothetical, highly capable technologies long before the executive order. The word was popularized in science philosopher Nick Bostrom’s 2014 book Superintelligence, which defined it as “any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest”. A 2025 petition, in which a host of AI researchers and others called for a slowdown in the development of superintelligence , similarly describes it as a system “that can significantly outperform all humans on essentially all cognitive tasks”. But the term is still not completely defined, says Melanie Mitchell, an AI researcher at the Santa Fe institute in New Mexico. For instance, the components of human-level intelligence remain undefined. “None of this has rigorous meaning. People can use these terms to mean what they want,” she says. What is Trump hoping to achieve? Name changes are not a new practice for Trump. In August, when the United States and Canada were feuding over tariffs, Trump ordered federal agencies to refer to Lake Ontario as Lake America . The change reflected the lake’s importance to the United States, Trump’s order said. Trump explained his reasoning behind the SI change to the United Nations last month. It “is much more accurate” than the term artificial intelligence, which “makes it sound fake”, Trump said, “And it’s not fake.” Too dangerous to release: is Mythos the start of the restricted-AI era? Darrell West, who researches AI policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, sees the president’s renaming of AI as an effort to rebrand the technology as public sentiment turns against it. About 8 in 10 of those surveyed in a US poll last month were worried about the pace of AI development, and nearly 9 in 10 said they’re more concerned than excited about the prospect that AI might exceed human intelligence. Trump has repeatedly dismissed worries about AI, for example posting on social media: “AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX.” He has also criticized AI leaders who have called for regulation . “The hope is that changing the name improves public acceptance of the technology” so that “the AI revolution will go forward,” West says. “But I think that is fanciful thinking.” Asked about West’s assertion, the White House referred Nature to Trump’s public statements on the need for a new term. Enjoying our latest content? 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