Donald Trump clashed with CNN at the United Nations in New York before using his address to announce that artificial intelligence would be referred to as “super intelligence”, or “SI”, in US government documents.
The US President confronted a CNN reporter as he entered the UN headquarters on Tuesday, just days after his administration barred the network from the White House alongside MS NOW and Politico.
“I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me. You shouldn’t be here. You should not be here covering me,” Mr Trump told the journalist.
He added: “You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering me.”
A CNN journalist replied that the United Nations had permitted the network to enter. CNN was entitled to cover the President from the UN and had not said it would stop reporting on him.
The confrontation followed the administration’s accusation that the three organisations produced “fake news”. They have since launched legal action challenging their exclusion from White House grounds.
Major US television networks have also refused to take part in the traditional White House television pool while CNN remains barred. The arrangement normally provides live presidential footage to other broadcasters, and its absence created difficulties for White House coverage on Monday.
The boycott did not affect coverage of Mr Trump at the United Nations, where broadcasters operate under a separate arrangement. The White House’s Rapid Response social media account later highlighted the number of networks carrying his appearance.
Trump announces ‘super intelligence’ rebrand
During his speech to world leaders, Mr Trump said the term artificial intelligence should be replaced by “super intelligence” because he believed “artificial” made the technology sound false.
“The word ‘artificial’ makes it sound fake, and it is not fake. It’s actually amazing, but we have to be careful,” he said.
He said all US documents, and potentially those used around the world, would adopt the new terminology.
“From this point forward, all of United States documents, and hopefully the world’s, will be changed to use the much more accurate term, super, as opposed to artificial,” Mr Trump said. “So it’s ‘super intelligence’.”
The proposed change comes as debate over the risks and regulation of increasingly powerful AI systems intensifies in the United States. Technology executives have warned about the speed of development, while Mr Trump has resisted calls to slow progress, arguing that doing so could allow China to overtake the US.
“Whoever wins AI, now I say ‘SI’, that’s the group that wins, and we’re leading China by a lot,” he said.
Mr Trump said he would not “stifle growth” of a technology he believed could become bigger than the Industrial Revolution, although he added that the US would be “very careful” and could intervene where necessary.
The announcement means the Trump administration intends to use “super intelligence” in federal government documents. It does not prevent companies, media organisations or the public from continuing to use the term artificial intelligence.
