What’s in a name ? Actually everything. Digital India is not using two dictionary words. Or “Make in India” is not as obvious as it sounds today. And the first one of them all, “Incredible India” is as profound as it is simple.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced at the United Nations General Assembly that the U.S. government will officially phase out the term “Artificial Intelligence” in favor of “Super Intelligence” (SI) in official government documents.
The administration argued that the word “artificial” incorrectly implies the technology is “fake,” whereas “super intelligence” reflects its growing power and scope.
I looked at this and smiled. Exactly seven years ago, I had a three minute conversation with President Trump – backstage of Howdy Modi – in Houston. At the Super Bowl stadium where the event was held.
That September evening I went to visit my batchmate Bhushan N. Vaid in Sugarland and he took me to visit the BAPS Akshardham temple in his neighbourhood. I recall a conversation with the Guruji who mentioned that Buddhism won because it was not an “alternate” religion but a “complimentary one”. So Shinto followers stayed with Shintoism but added a topping of Buddhism. Each region thus had its own unique flavour of base and topping.
The next day, I was out at dinner with our current water resources minister Mr CK Patil meeting doctors at a get together of people from Surat. I recall an absolutely delicious gujrati meal but an even more interesting conversation of “alternate medicine” vs “complementary medicine”.
I came back adequately confused. But with a lot of food for thought. I shared my confusion with India’s top branding expert Mrinalini Gupta who set my thinking straight once and for all. She laid it out logically and definitively.
There are only degrees of intelligence. Natural or artificial doesn’t matter. And there are holders of that intelligence – human, nature, machine, animal etc.
The best adjective to denote degree was “super”. And the best way to denote holder was “human” or not.
In September of 2020, a year after Howdy Modi, we stopped using words like Ai Accountant or Ai Doctor or Ai Fund. And changed them to SuperCA, Super Doctor, Super Fund etc. We also created companies with this name.
Steve Mnuchin the then treasury secretary of the United States – and a film fund manager by profession saw the merit in Super right away.
And today the United States officially adopted it. Thank you Mrinalini Gupta and Roger Simkin and the entire crew of Anytime and Dune Entertainment Fund. Had they not have come up with the name “Avatar” for the greatest blockbuster in Hollywood history, the worlds first ai made movie “Life of Pi” may not have happened twenty years ago. And India would not have been number three in ai.
