Donald Trump had barely arrived at the United Nations before he found himself in a familiar fight.
The US President took aim at a CNN reporter as he entered the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, telling the journalist they “shouldn’t be here” just days after his administration banned the network from the White House.
Then, once inside, Mr Trump turned his attention to another target: artificial intelligence.
The President used his address to world leaders to declare AI would now be known as “super intelligence”, or “SI”, in US government documents because he believes the word “artificial” makes the technology sound fake.
It capped an eventful arrival at the UN for Mr Trump, whose escalating battle with sections of the American media followed him all the way to New York.
“It is an honour to be at the United Nations. We’re making progress, our country is doing really well,” Mr Trump told reporters as he entered the UN on Tuesday.
But his tone quickly changed when he noticed CNN was among the media covering his arrival.
“I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me. You shouldn’t be here. You should not be here covering me.
“You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering me.”
CNN was entitled to cover the President from the UN and had not said it would stop reporting on Mr Trump. A CNN journalist responded that the United Nations had allowed the network inside.
The confrontation came after the Trump administration barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House grounds last week, accusing the organisations of producing “fake news”.
The three outlets have since launched legal action challenging the move.
The dispute has also triggered a wider protest among major US television networks, which have refused to participate in the traditional White House television pool while CNN remains excluded.
The pool normally provides live presidential footage to other broadcasters, meaning its absence caused problems during White House coverage on Monday.
The boycott did not prevent networks from covering Mr Trump at the UN, where coverage is organised separately.
The White House’s Rapid Response social media account later sought to mock the protest by highlighting the number of networks carrying Mr Trump’s UN appearance.
But it was another announcement from the President that quickly attracted attention.
After previously pushing new names for geographic landmarks, Mr Trump announced he was taking aim at one of the most recognisable terms in technology.
Artificial intelligence, he declared, should instead be called “super intelligence”.
“The United States totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control for the artificial intelligence… here and after officially called ‘super intelligence,’” he said at the UN on Tuesday, US time.
“The word ‘artificial’ makes it sound fake, and it is not fake. It’s actually amazing, but we have to be careful.
“From this point forward, all of United States documents, and hopefully the world’s, will be changed to use the much more accurate term, super, as opposed to artificial. So it’s ‘super intelligence’.
“Welcome to the new world of superintelligence. Sounds much better. It is much better, and it’s much more accurate.
“Let’s see if I have any power. Maybe I do, and maybe I don’t. We’re going to find out pretty soon.”
Mr Trump’s proposed rebrand comes as debate over the risks and regulation of increasingly powerful AI systems intensifies in the US, including warnings from technology executives about the speed at which the technology is developing.
The President has resisted calls to slow development, arguing that doing so could allow China to overtake the US in the global technology race.
“Every major new technology brings challenges, and superintelligence is no exception,” he continued.
“Yet the very same people who said we’ll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming, and nobody is dead, are now saying that AI is going to kill us, that robots are going to attack us, and that everything is going to be a total disaster.
“Whoever wins AI, now I say ‘SI’, that’s the group that wins, and we’re leading China by a lot.
“I’m not going to stifle growth of something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution.”
Mr Trump said the US would be “very careful” as the technology developed and suggested authorities could intervene where necessary.
The declaration means the Trump administration intends to use “super intelligence” in federal government documents, although it does not prevent companies, media organisations or the public from continuing to use the term artificial intelligence.
For Mr Trump, however, the message to the world was clear: AI is out and SI is in.
And if his arrival at the UN was anything to go by, CNN remains firmly out at the White House too.
