Trump ordered the executive branch to stop saying “Artificial Intelligence”. California answered the next day. The machines did not change. The order changes a label and keeps the thing. Sec. 3(a) says the new terms “mean the technologies and systems encompassed by the term” artificial intelligence as defined in section 9401(3) of title 15. Same systems, same statute, new name. Sec. 3(b) asks for proposed legislative language within 60 days, so for now the statute keeps the old word. The swap is in the adjective: artificial tells a reader what the thing is, super tells a reader how to rate it. California answered the next day with an order of its own. N-10-26 tells agencies to keep saying “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI”, “notwithstanding any rebranded or different terminology used by the federal government”. Its WHEREAS clause argues that changing “something’s name cannot distract a person of normal intelligence”. It makes that argument in an executive order about a name, and directs “widespread publicity and notice”. YouGov asked 21,449 adults on September 28, the day before the first order: 53% chose artificial intelligence, 9% super intelligence. Republicans split 48% to 13%. Neither naming order changes what any system may do. Each decides which word its own officials will say first, and that word is the one most people will hear from their government.
