Gavin Newsom just found a uniquely Californian way to troll Donald Trump: an executive order about what everyone is allowed to call artificial intelligence.
And yes, this is apparently where American politics is now.
After Trump moved to rebrand “Artificial Intelligence” as “Super Intelligence,” or “SI,” Newsom signed an executive order on September 30 directing California state agencies to keep calling it exactly what virtually everyone already calls it:
Artificial Intelligence.
AI.
That’s it.
“All agencies and departments subject to my authority shall refer to Artificial Intelligence and AI as ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘AI,’ notwithstanding any rebranded or different terminology used by the federal government, unless inconsistent with the law,” Newsom’s order states.
But Newsom didn’t stop with simply rejecting Trump’s terminology.
He worked the trolling directly into the legal language of the executive order.
The order declares that while terminology can matter, changing the name of something cannot distract “a person of normal intelligence” from recognizing what Newsom described as the federal government’s failure to adequately confront emerging AI safety and security risks.
Yes.
“Normal intelligence.”
In an executive order about artificial intelligence.
The target wasn’t exactly difficult to identify.
The move came after Trump signed his own executive order directing federal agencies to adopt “Super Intelligence” and “SI” as the preferred terminology for advanced artificial-intelligence systems.
Newsom’s response effectively ensures that the federal rebranding stops at California’s state-government door.
And there is an additional layer to the fight.
California isn’t some random participant in the artificial-intelligence industry.
Silicon Valley is home to many of the companies driving the AI boom, and Newsom’s order explicitly boasts that California “dominates Artificial Intelligence innovation” while arguing that the state has also pursued aggressive AI safety, security and consumer-privacy measures.
That turns what could have been a throwaway political joke into a very deliberate piece of resistance to Washington’s new terminology.
Trump can tell the federal government to call it “Super Intelligence.”
Newsom is telling the government of the country’s largest state — and the home of Silicon Valley — to ignore him.
The California governor has increasingly embraced this kind of public trolling in his political battles with Trump, frequently mimicking Trump’s rhetoric and social-media style to attack the president and his administration.
This time, though, Newsom didn’t need a meme or a social-media post.
He put the joke under the Great Seal of the State of California.
And unless another executive order comes along, Artificial Intelligence remains Artificial Intelligence in California.
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