President Donald Trump responded to the AI safety debate on Saturday by posting on Truth Social that the phrase ‘Artificial Intelligence’ is ‘inaccurate, and very ineloquent,’ and asking followers to vote on a replacement: Superior Intelligence, Extreme Intelligence, or Supreme Intelligence. In a follow-up post, he described attempts to destroy AI as one of many Democratic hoaxes, comparing it to Russia, Ukraine, global warming, the impeachments, and transgender issues. He said the hoax began with an attack on data centers until people realized how wealthy and prestigious they were for communities, and that after that attack ‘largely failed,’ critics are now ‘going straight at AI.’ The article notes Trump offered no evidence that suspicion of AI and data centers is not organic and sincere, and that both Republicans and Democrats have criticized data centers; New York recently became the first state to halt permits for large projects.

Trump said he will ‘cherish’ the AI industry, help it, and watch over it as it grows, while forming an AI Force similar to the Space Force he established in his first term. He also said he will announce an AI ‘Czar’ in the near future, adding ‘Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!’ No duties for the AI Force or the czar were specified. The posts echo his comments at a golf tournament last weekend, when he said he was open to ‘guardrails’ but believed there were negative forces bringing up AI concerns.

The exchange follows a recent intensification of the AI safety debate: an AI researcher said he was quitting Anthropic because leading AI companies ‘earnestly believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade’ and are ‘gambling with our lives.’ Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei released a plan to ‘pace the frontier,’ which was seemingly endorsed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk. Critics of the industry have suggested these existential-risk concerns distract from more immediate harms. At the All-In Summit, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang agreed with Trump that the AI backlash is a ‘hoax’ and said ‘we’re not going to let’ a slowdown happen. The article also notes that Sacks, the former AI and crypto czar, stepped down earlier this year to co-chair the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.