In academic discourse, use of the correct name is an important means of establishing professional credibility. For example, if within the fields of computer science and information science, a specific term of art, such as artificial intelligence, has gained widespread acceptance, the use of an alternative term—a term, like superintelligence, not widely accepted within the discipline—would seriously undermine the credibility of academic work (and the author’s more general standing within the field).
Donald Trump has notoriously attempted to rechristen the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” So too has he attempted to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” and he is threatening to fashion new MAGA names for an ocean, a major river, and the state of New Mexico. Trump also recently signed an executive order requiring all federal government programs and communications to use the terms superintelligence and S.I. rather than the broadly accepted nomenclature artificial intelligence and A.I. One might shrug all of this off and say, “Well, so what? It’s a free country, and all of us can still use the generally accepted names of places (Gulf of Mexico) and things (A.I.).”
Unfortunately, after Oct. 1, 2026, this is no longer the case for academics at state-sponsored colleges and universities in Alabama. H.B. 2 officially bans the use of the phrase Gulf of Mexico by any and all state employees. As a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, I find this appalling.
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