Can ‘super intelligence’ and a non-binding safety pact solve AI’s image problem?

President Donald Trump hosted many of the biggest names in artificial intelligence this week, in part to announce that the U.S. government will no longer call the technology artificial intelligence but "super intelligence," according to TechCrunch's Equity podcast. Anthony Ha said the change was signed into executive order, meaning official U.S. representatives are supposed to use the term.

The meeting also produced a "Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities" signed by the attending executives. Ha, Kirsten Korosec and Sean O'Kane discussed the gathering on the podcast. O'Kane noted the agreement is "deeply non-binding" and completely voluntary, and that it misspelled the United States. Trump described it as "morally binding," a term O'Kane said he had not heard before.

Korosec said the meeting's significance may have been as "a rebranding effort around AI," with the message that AI is scary and will take jobs but super intelligence is not. She said that was the message, not her personal belief, and noted the effort continued with Trump's weekend announcement of a new Super Intelligence Force.

Attendees included Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Korosec said Amodei had recently been "in the doghouse" with the administration before being invited to a 10 p.m. dinner, followed days later by the luncheon. O'Kane said he remained skeptical the relationship was repaired, citing the Defense Department's continuing view of Anthropic as a national security risk and Emil Michael's frequent criticism of the company on X. Ha said reporting indicated different parts of the White House had different relationships with Anthropic, with the Treasury Secretary seen as a fan while the Defense Department was unhappy with conditions Anthropic sought to place on use of its technology.