'Criminal plot' suspected behind Trump's latest bizarre fixation: journalist

President Donald Trump’s months-long fixation on rebranding the term artificial intelligence (AI) may be a cover for something far more sinister, according to a theory floated Tuesday by journalist and professor Adam Cochran.

“I always thought it should be ‘SI’ — supreme intelligence, but I guess somewhere along the line, they decided on the word ‘artificial,’ and that's okay with me,” Trump said last December in the Oval Office.

Despite claiming to be “okay” with the term AI, Trump apparently had second thoughts. Earlier this month, Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social to poll his followers on what term should replace AI, providing options such as “Supreme Intelligence,” “Superior Intelligence” and “Extreme Intelligence.” On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order to officially rename the term artificial intelligence to “super intelligence.”

Cochran, an independent journalist and adjunct professor of information science at Conestoga College in Ontario, suggested that the move was actually “another criminal plot to enrich the Trump family.”

As noted by Cochran, internet domain names ending with “.ai” have been a “hot commodity” since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other generative AI chatbots. Predictably, domain names ending with “.si” have been less sought after — that is, until Trump started promoting and advocating for the use of the term “SI.”

According to Euronews, Trump’s promotion of the term “SI” sparked an “unexpected rush” for “.si” domain names, which Cochran also noted was the “domain extension of Slovenia (coincidentally where Melania and Barron Trump are both citizens of).”

And, despite Trump not seriously publicly pushing to rebrand artificial intelligence until earlier this month, the “.si” domain name “suddenly” became “popular with domain investors” in June, the trade publication Domain Name Wire reported at the time, leading Cochran to suspect that some in Trump’s inner circle had been tipped off on the official name change in advance.

“Since Trump’s announcement .si domain have seen MILLIONS of dollars in turn over. Much of it going to domains that were registered in the last 60 days before the announcement,” Cochran wrote.

“Using an Executive Order for the enrichment of yourself is not only unethical but a breach of office. It’s a crime and an impeachable offence. The records are also very clear, and logged. So I’m sure a future Congress will be looking at who bought these domains.”