AI CEOs Now face a public debate over what to call artificial intelligence after a September 29 White House meeting produced a document tied to the phrase “Super Intelligence.” The leaders’ public language since then has varied, according to Gizmodo’s review of their statements and posts.
The phrase carries a different meaning from artificial intelligence in the source’s account. It describes a hypothetical intelligence superior to humanity, while the everyday AI label is used for technologies including neural networks, large language models, chatbots, image generators and coding applications. The distinction sits at the center of a dispute over whether the two-word phrase should describe AI generally.
AI CEOs Now Use Different Language
Several executives associated with major AI companies or products used “Super Intelligence” after the White House event. Jeff Bezos, chief executive of Project Prometheus, told Fox News that he liked “SI” because “artificial” was not flattering. He compared it with artificial sweeteners and flavoring.
Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff wrote on X, “The era of Super Intelligence is here. AIForce is officially SIForce.” Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang used the phrase in an interview with Elon Musk after the meeting, then used it several times in a longer X post, the report said.
Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella also adopted the wording in a post titled “Models as Insider Risks in the Super Intelligence Era.” His post described safety technology that “eludes us in today’s Super Intelligence systems,” according to the article.
Other leaders did not use the phrase in the same way. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman did not attend the meeting and had not publicly used it in the review. On October 6, he posted the term “AI” on X. Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy, who also did not attend, used “AI” in a post the day after the event.
Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei attended and signed the document, but had been quiet since an interview published before the meeting, the report said. Alphabet and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai signed it and posted that it was an “Important conversation” and that “we signed today the White House Accord on Super Intelligence.” He later shared a video in which an employee used “AI.”
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg had previously used “superintelligence” aspirationally, according to a Meta spokesperson quoted by Gizmodo. The report said he had recently increased its use and helped write the White House document. It had not found him using the two-word phrase as Trump prescribed, to mean artificial intelligence generally.
The accounts show why executive language is drawing attention alongside company leadership decisions, including Google’s AI leadership realignment. The source does not establish that the meeting caused each executive’s wording, and the examples do not represent a shared position across the industry.
For more on how executives frame organizational priorities, see coverage of CEOs making safety culture central and entrepreneurs building scalable leadership. The terminology question remains visible in public posts, where leaders continue to choose between “AI” and “Super Intelligence.”