DOJ Tells Staff To Call AI 'Super Intelligence' Under Trump Order, First Case Surfaces

The US Department of Justice sentenced Michael Smith to 18 months in prison on Oct. 6, marking a fraud case that used “Super Intelligence-Assisted Music” in its title.

Key Takeaways

Michael Smith was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Oct. 6 for a fraud case involving “Super Intelligence-Assisted Music.”
Smith used bots and AI-generated tracks to stream songs billions of times on Spotify and Apple Music
Smith collected more than $10 million in royalty payments he was not entitled to, according to the Justice Department
A DOJ memo instructed staff to use “Super Intelligence” instead of AI across filings and communications

The phrasing, used instead of artificial intelligence, traces to an internal directive requiring DOJ staff to replace “artificial intelligence” with “Super Intelligence” in official communications, a change tied to a Trump administration order.

Smith’s case, filed by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, is the first publicly documented instance of the rebranded term appearing in a federal prosecution’s own case title.

A Word Swap With Legal Weight

Smith used bots and AI-generated tracks to stream songs billions of times on platforms including Spotify and Apple Music, collecting more than $10 million in royalty payments he was not entitled to, according to the Justice Department.

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The underlying conduct has not changed, but prosecutors now use a different label for the technology in official court documents.

Legal observers say the shift could ripple into how AI-related evidence and statutes are described across the department’s active caseload.

Where The Directive Came From

The terminology change follows a broader Trump administration push to recast how the federal government talks about AI, alongside executive orders such as Promoting Advanced AI Innovation and Security, signed June 2, and a national policy framework order signed Dec. 11, according to the administration’s AI.gov site.

A senior DOJ official issued the internal memo this week instructing staff to use “Super Intelligence” in place of AI across filings and communications.

Critics have called the rebrand confusing because “superintelligence” already has a distinct meaning in AI research. It refers to systems that would exceed human cognitive ability.

That is a much narrower and more speculative concept than the generative tools used in Smith’s streaming scheme, and it remains unclear whether the terminology will hold across other pending prosecutions or apply retroactively to cases already filed under the older language.