President Donald Trump brought together Silicon Valley's top executives to sign a voluntary framework for self-regulation, even as he issued an executive order formally replacing the term "artificial intelligence" with "super intelligence" across the federal government. And yes, you can totally chuckle at that.

A White House gathering brought nearly two dozen tech big wigs included Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google's Sundar Pichai, NVIDIA head Jensen Huang, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and Palantir CEO Alex Karp. Against a backdrop of mounting public anxiety and recent warnings from top researchers regarding catastrophic risks associated with frontier AI, the administration doubled down on its commitment to market-driven innovation over mandated restrictions.

One of the primary focuses of the event was the unveiling of the White House Accord on Super Intelligence (SI). The non-binding document establishes a four-tier framework focused on internal monitoring and voluntary safety checks. Under the pact, companies developing cutting-edge models commit to adopting multi-layered internal controls, performing routine system stress tests, and employing independent, third-party evaluators to audit emerging capabilities. To preserve accountability, audit results will be routed directly to independent oversight committees housed within each company's board of directors that bypass internal corporate leadership.

Speaking to reporters (minus the banned ones, of course) on the White House driveway alongside several executives, Trump praised the agreement as a milestone for the industry. Characterizing the two-page document as a "morally binding" pact rather than legally enforceable, the president described the voluntary framework as acting "almost like a constitution" that relies on the industry to police itself. Trump emphasized that self-policing remains the most effective path to preserving American technological dominance, warning that strict regulatory burdens or mandatory federal licensing requirements could jeopardize the nation's competitive edge against rivals such as China.

Major tech companies have agreed to self-police AI development - Image: DogeDesigner via X

Simultaneously, the White House issued an executive order directing all federal departments and agencies to purge the common terminology of "artificial intelligence" and "AI" from official correspondence, policy papers, and non-statutory documents. Moving forward, the executive branch will use "super intelligence" and "SI" to designate advanced frontier technologies. The directive also instructs the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (currently Michael Kratsios) to formulate a formal federal definition of SI that accurately reflects the rapidly expanding capabilities of autonomous systems.

Expectedly, this double-barreled announcement has immediately drawn sharp criticism from lawmakers and policy experts. Critics pointed to recent public polling indicating strong bipartisan public support for mandatory federal oversight and legally binding guardrails. The same group also argue that rebranding the technology while entrusting private conglomerates to police their own safety measures abdicates governmental responsibility. Industry proponents, however, lauded the accord as a flexible balance that keeps guardrails adaptable while allowing American innovation to advance without bureaucratic red tape.