Korea has no plans to follow US push to replace term AI with 'super intelligence'

Science ministry set to focus on sovereign AI capabilities

Deputy Prime Minister and Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon answers questions from lawmakers during an annual audit by the National Assembly in Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

Korea is not considering to replace the term artificial intelligence (AI) with “super intelligence,” or SI, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT, distancing itself from a terminology push underway in the United States.

An official from the ministry told The Korea Times that the government has no plans of replacing AI with SI.

“There has been no consideration at our level of using such terminology,” the official said on Tuesday.

The clarification came after Deputy Prime Minister and Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon, during a National Assembly audit earlier in the day, used the term SI while describing U.S. efforts to secure leadership in advanced AI competition.

The Donald Trump administration has been promoting the use of SI instead of AI. Trump signed an executive order titled "Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence" on Sept. 29, requiring federal executive agencies to use SI instead of AI in official documents, including websites, reports and policy papers.

The shift has also drawn attention from the private sector. Elon Musk has said he plans to rename SpaceX’s AI division from SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI, in line with the terminology promoted by the Trump administration.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters with Elon Musk at the White House in Washington, D.C., Sept. 29. AP-Yonhap

Korea’s science ministry is instead focused on strengthening domestic AI capabilities and developing technologies for national security and strategic industries, rather than changing terminology.

Bae said during the audit that the U.S. push reflected ambitions several times greater than Korea’s initial targets. He cited the U.S. initiative as one of the reasons behind the government’s decision to launch a new state-backed frontier AI project to develop an advanced homegrown AI model alongside the existing national AI foundation model project.

The initiative is part of the Korean government’s objective of positioning Korea among the world’s top three AI powerhouses. The ministry’s latest position underscores its focus on strengthening the country’s fundamental AI capabilities, rather than following Washington’s terminology shift, which it sees as offering little practical benefit.