Is Super Intelligence Just a PR Move or More?

Gareth Hood (0:00)

Hey, what's going on, everybody?

Brian Maucere (0:02)

Welcome to The Daily AI Show. Today is October 5th, 2026 And with me today is Andy and Beth to get things started. I'm Brian.

And yeah, this is, you know, if you're just joining us or finding us for the very first time because you saw the thumbnail, you like the title. Welcome. We're glad you're here. Just know that we do this five days a week. We have been doing this for well over three years. This is episode 826, I think. If I did the quick note, 121

Andy Halliday (0:30)

That's right. 26

Brian Maucere (0:32)

Yeah. I was like, no one has had. Immediately I felt I was like, yep, now I'm probably wrong on that.

Karl (0:37)

I thought it was 30, 31

Brian Maucere (0:39)

But well, we used to put them on the on the thumbnail and now we don't. And so that was my daily, like what number are we on? And again, it's gotten harder now because I have to go find it for Spotify. Spotify is the only place now they have an episode place where you could put it. It doesn't even really show up in front of people, but in the back end, it kind of keeps a running count. So anyway, that's how we know what the numbers are. But anyway, if you're new here, welcome. This is a morning talk show. It's the best way to think about it.

You have a bunch of us from The Daily AI Show co-hosts pool. And we come in here and we talk about all the things going on in AI. Sometimes we get in some deep conversations. And sometimes we just sort of hit the lighter news that has come out over the weekend. And speaking of which, because this is a Monday, we typically have a little bit heavier load of news stories that did trickle out over the weekend. And one thing you could say about AI is it does not take weekends or holidays off. Sometimes some of the biggest stories we've seen have happened in the two days before or after a major holiday.

So this weekend, while not anything earth shattering, we're still continuing to see some of the changes from the Trump administration in terms of his president Trump's directive to change the terminology from AI to SI. Now, I had to kind of catch up on this guy's because I knew it happened. I knew he made that announcement. And I was like, okay, with super intelligence, us meaning three of us plus anybody like Jen or Jeff that are in the comments right now, would say is like, hold on a second. ASI was already a defined thing or at least loosely defined artificial super intelligence. And that was a step beyond not even just AI, but normally you would say AGI, artificial general intelligence. And then ASI is known to be above that. It is above a general knowledge of AI. Obviously, Andy and Beth, you all know this already, but I'm just saying this out for the audience.

So then when superintelligence was named, as far as the US governance, not worldwide, nobody's changing, everybody else is probably going to keep saying AI. But in terms of the US government, they want to use this new rebranding, and that's really what it is. So now you have superintelligence, and that came out of a truth, so I did not know this until today, that came out of a truth social poll, and it essentially won over, I think, Superior or something was another name.

Andy Halliday (3:09)

This is so stupid. Wait, wait, wait, you're capitulating. You're saying, I accept that the United States has changed the name of artificial intelligence, and worldwide, it's not changing from AI.

No, this is about as valid as the Trump Kennedy Center for the Arts. This is a stupid process.

Brian Maucere (3:35)

It's a rebranding.

Andy Halliday (3:36)

Driven purely by the vanity of Trump, thinking that he can drive the train of AI. I am just a dumbfounded that we're allowing it to proceed.

Brian Maucere (3:48)

Elon Musk has said that...

Andy Halliday (3:50)

They're all dead with him, okay? I'm not saying they have to. For professional reasons, they have to.

Karl (3:58)

So let's get a temperature check.

What is the body of water near you in Florida? It's Gulf of?

Brian Maucere (4:10)

Mexico, yeah.

Karl (4:11)

For me, it's the Gulf of Mexico. I think we're artificial intelligence.

Brian Maucere (4:17)

Listen, look, I'm going to play devil's eye kid.

It is purely, call it what you want. It's purely a rebranding technique. And even Jensen Huang talked about this. He's supportive of it. Why wouldn't he be, right? He has good reason to be in support of this. I get this, who's in bed with who and all that kind of stuff. Elon Musk, I get that too. Even Jensen Huang said, hey, data centers should really be called super intelligent factories. Why would you do that? Because there is a huge pushback against data centers. Data centers sound bad, AI, taking water, all the things that communities don't want them. But if my community is building a super intelligence factory, hey, maybe that sounds a little bit better, doesn't change a damn what the data center is. It's just a rebranding. To me, it's a PR move, a rebranding technique. Yes, yes, Andy, I agree that some of it is vanity and things that we've seen before with naming bodies of water, both north and south of the United States or west Florida as well as north.