Trump awards science and technology medals to tech CEOs

What happened: Trump gave the National Medal of Science to Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Lisa Su, and Sergey Brin, and the technology medal to Satya Nadella and Michael Dell. The same morning he posted on Truth Social that anyone who says artificial intelligence instead of superintelligence is the enemy. AI companies pledged about $2.4 billion in compute and tools at the event. The New Republic reports the honorees have given nearly $6 billion to Trump linked efforts. NBC News and TechCrunch covered the ceremony.
The claim: The White House says the honorees pioneered America's future and deserve the medals.
Austin's take: Austin notes these honors usually go to scientists, not CEOs who backed the administration, but says it is not totally out of the realm since frontier companies are doing real research and call themselves labs. He doubts 'superintelligence' has caught on as a phrase yet and asks whether CEOs deserve a science medal more than lab scientists.
Why it matters: It's the second time in roughly two weeks that top AI CEOs have been at the White House, and it shows how closely the industry and the administration are aligning, right down to the vocabulary.
What to do: Read the medal news alongside the political donation figures, and watch whether 'superintelligence' starts showing up in official policy language.

The Loop