White House Rebrands AI as 'Super Intelligence' as Tech CEOs Sign Safety Pledge

President Donald Trump signed an executive order this week that officially rebrands artificial intelligence as "super intelligence," according to a TechCrunch Equity podcast discussion. The order coincided with a White House gathering that brought together nearly every major tech CEO—including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Anthropic's Dario Amodei—to sign an AI safety pledge that Trump described as "morally binding." The meeting and executive order represent the latest high-profile moves by the administration to shape the direction of AI development and regulation. The pledge signed by the executives commits them to certain safety principles, though the specific details of the agreement were not disclosed in the podcast episode. Meanwhile, major AI companies are working to present more approachable public images for their products. Meta and OpenAI are both putting "friendlier faces" on their AI offerings, even as the largest revenue streams in the sector continue to come from enterprise customers rather than consumers. The Equity podcast hosts—Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane—analyzed these developments, along with what they described as the "ugly economics" of consumer AI. The discussion also covered the shifting IPO market and several startup deals. The podcast episode is part of TechCrunch's ongoing coverage of the technology industry. TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will feature a live Equity show on the Builders Stage at 9 a.m., with a 25% discount available using code Equity25. Listeners can subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, and other podcast platforms, and follow the show on X and Threads at @EquityPod.