“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean–neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words means so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master–that’s all.”
Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking Glass
The Re-brander-in-Chief not only has insisted on changing the term “Artificial Intelligence” to “Super Intelligence” but has now proclaimed that “[t]he White House considers anyone who uses the term, ‘Artificial Intelligence,’ as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term, ‘Super Intelligence,’ THE ENEMY!”
It is difficult to imagine a more addled, ridiculous, authoritarian, and all-around inappropriate statement, unless you count every other addled, ridiculous, authoritarian, and inappropriate statement that comes out of Trump’s pie hole on a daily basis. Like so much that Trump says, this stuff would be fodder for the 25th Amendment if our system wasn’t so broken and the Republicans weren’t so craven, subservient, and corrupt themselves.
Declaring those who use a common term like “Artificial Intelligence” to be “THE ENEMY” is right on brand for a man who said, “There’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories.” In both cases, the orange moron seems not so much unaware of the First Amendment as contemptuous of it.
So this is where we are: Trump has really glommed on to changing the names of things as a public relations strategy. It’s as if he thinks that George Orwell’s 1984 was intended as a how-to guide on governance. If you want your subjects to think differently, dictate how they talk and revise their language by royal decree. (By the way, I use the word “subjects” because that’s what we are in the eyes of Trump, the tech billionaires, and the depraved bottom-feeders who populate his Administration.)
Let’s try to track where we are now. We are supposed to say “Super Intelligence” along with “Lake America” and the “Gulf of America.” In addition, we now have the “Department of War,” “Mount McKinley,” “Fort Bragg,” and, if Trump’s lackeys get their way, the changing of the name of the U.S.S. Doris Miller, which is named for an African-American sailor who was a hero at Pearl Harbor, to a name honoring old Bone Spurs Trump.
You may have noticed that I haven’t yet addressed the question why Trump is trying to euphemize Artificial Intelligence. (My spell checker doesn’t recognize “euphemize” so I checked my copy of the twelfth edition Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, and there’s an entry for it, explaining that it means to express or describe something euphemistically. But you knew that.)
Back to the question: Why is Trump trying to make Artificial Intelligence seem less scary and mean? With the caveat that trying to understand Trump’s motivations is pretty much a fool’s errand, the obvious go-to with Trump is to guess that someone’s paying him off. That’s probably true, but maybe not the entire story.
The rest of the story may be that Trump (or his economic advisors) have recognized that without the vast amount of spending and investing related to Artificial Intelligence, our economy and the stock market would be in the toilet right now. This headline from Barron’s says it all: “Massive AI Spending Is Helping Power The Economy. Productivity Gains Can Wait.” (Hey, Barron’s, it’s “Super Intelligence.” Trump said so. Get with the program!)
NPR’s Marketplace also recently noted that Wells Fargo has estimated that “AI spending makes up about a quarter of GDP growth over the past year.” And Marketplace also noted that a small number of AI and tech firms have driven much of the stock market’s gains recently.
So Trump has ample motivation to try to combat growing public disquiet over Artificial Intelligence, even if in the long-term AI may destroy us all. (After all, Trump knows that he probably won’t be around in the long-term.) And in his ridiculous, addled, and instinctively authoritarian way, Trump seems to think he can command us to love Artificial Intelligence or Super Intelligence or whatever you call it.
But whatever his reasons (if any), what’s important is for voters to understand that when it comes to Artificial Intelligence (and data centers too), the President doesn’t agree with them and isn’t on their side. I hope they remember that when they cast their votes next month. After all, Trump wants voters to pretend that he is on the ballot.