Donald Trump gave artificial intelligence a grander name, and Salesforce boss Marc Benioff apparently likes the sound of it. Just 10 days after the president ordered the executive branch to adopt “Super Intelligence” terminology, Benioff announced some SI branding of his own.
In a post on Twitter, now called X, he wrote, “The era of Super Intelligence is here. AIForce is officially SIForce.” An accompanying image pairs the Salesforce cloud logo with the new name.
Quite a declaration, folks. Unfortunately, the announcement offers no benchmarks, technical explanation, or new capabilities to support it. We get a logo and a proclamation that the future has arrived.
As NERDS.xyz previously reported, Trump signed an executive order on September 29 directing federal executive departments and agencies to replace “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” with “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in official communications, websites, reports, and other applicable materials.
Despite the dramatic wording, the executive order initially uses the existing statutory definition of artificial intelligence. It also directs the president’s science and technology adviser to submit proposed legislative language for a federal definition within 60 days.
In other words, Washington changed the vocabulary without establishing that the underlying technology had suddenly become superhuman. Now a prominent technology executive is embracing the same language.
Benioff does not mention Trump in his post or explain whether the order influenced his decision. We cannot establish his motivation from those two sentences, but the timing makes this look awfully deferential. A technology leader should be able to explain his own terminology rather than leave everyone wondering whether he is taking branding cues from the White House.
Much of the Twitter reaction I saw was negative, with replies taking issue with the announcement. That is a snapshot of the responses visible to me, rather than a scientific measure of public opinion.
A separate Reddit discussion also contains plenty of ridicule. Participants accused tech executives of pandering to Trump, mocked the name change, and questioned what AIForce actually referred to.
That last question deserves an answer. Benioff specifically says AIForce is becoming SIForce, but his brief announcement does not explain the scope of the branding. It does not establish that Salesforce is changing its corporate name or renaming every AI product it sells.
For customers, the useful questions are fairly straightforward. Does this introduce better accuracy, fewer errors, or capabilities they could not access before? Is there a new product to evaluate, or simply a different label?
Those details would give people something concrete to discuss. Instead, the sweeping claim invites skepticism because Benioff provides so little to support it.
There is nothing wrong with being enthusiastic about useful technology. However, “Super Intelligence” sets expectations that a business software company should be prepared to defend, particularly when its announcement echoes terminology the president adopted less than two weeks earlier.
My previous article questioned whether the technology industry would follow Washington’s lead. Benioff has now embraced the administration’s preferred vocabulary, even if he has not explained why.
If Salesforce has something impressive behind SIForce, it should show us. Until then, this looks like a tech boss falling in line with Trump’s rebranding, with customers left to figure out what they actually gain.
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