“Compute campuses.”
That’s the latest AI newspeak.
This time, the proposed rebrand is coming from OpenAI, whose spokesperson apparently confirmed to Business Insider on Sunday that this was its new preferred nomenclature.
“Compute campuses better describes the scale and role of the infrastructure we’re building for AI,” they told Insider, adding, “These are long-term investments in computing, energy infrastructure and skilled work.”
Back in September, this emerging trend for rebranding AI-related concepts kicked off, starting with the term “artificial intelligence” itself. President Trump decided he prefers the term “Super Intelligence,” mandated its use among federal officers under his authority, and appears to have convinced many AI leaders to adopt it—although OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is notably absent from that list.
According to a Pew survey over the summer, few Americans have a positive view of AI’s future role in society—at only 16%. So there’s an argument to be made that changing the name makes sense, assuming one holds the American people in such low regard as to think a name change will help shift public opinion.
Americans’ opinions on data centers broadly have been trending downward in recent months, according to a September Pew survey. That survey collected views on data centers vis-a-vis the environment, utility costs, neighborhood quality of life, jobs, and tax revenue. Only 4% of Americans thought data centers impacted all of those areas positively.
Strategically associating political opponents with data centers has also become an important feature of electoral politics this year. Data centers are only starting to coalesce into an issue with partisans taking one clear side or the other, but calling an opponent a “data senator“—to cite just one recent example—has proven to be a great way to earn publicity. And calling someone a “compute campus senator” certainly doesn’t have the same ring to it.
OpenAI’s spokesperson told Insider, “We want the communities hosting that infrastructure to help shape it and share in the opportunities it creates.”
Gizmodo reached out to OpenAI for confirmation of the rebrand. We will update if we hear back.