US President Donald Trump has used his UN speech to rename artificial intelligence and lash out at countries seeking to rein in the technology, including Australia.

In an address to the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday (AEST), Trump said AI should be called “super intelligence” and rejected calls for further protections.

It came a day after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined more than 20 other countries signing a joint statement urging greater oversight of AI.

In a fiery speech, Trump also declared he was weighing up whether to “annihilate” Iran if no deal could be reached to end the war in the Middle East.

“Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world?” Trump asked.

“Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”

Addressing world leaders, Trump said AI had the potential to be bigger than the Industrial Revolution or the internet.

“The United States totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control for the artificial intelligence… here and after officially called ‘super intelligence’,” he said.

“The word ‘artificial’ makes it sound fake, and it is not fake. It’s actually amazing, but we have to be careful.

“From this point forward, all of United States documents, and hopefully the world’s, will be changed to use the much more accurate term, super, as opposed to artificial. So it’s ‘super intelligence’.

“Welcome to the new world of super intelligence. Sounds much better. It is much better, and it’s much more accurate.

“Let’s see if I have any power. Maybe I do, and maybe I don’t. We’re going to find out pretty soon.”

Trump said every major new technology brought challenges “and super intelligence is no exception”.

“Yet the very same people who said we’ll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming, and nobody is dead, are now saying that AI is going to kill us, that robots are going to attack us, and that everything is going to be a total disaster,” he said.

“Whoever wins AI, now I say ‘SI’, that’s the group that wins, and we’re leading China by a lot.

“I’m not going to stifle growth of something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution.”

A day earlier, Australia signed a joint statement — also signed by Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and South Africa — warning that the pace of AI’s development could outpace abilities to manage the associated risks.

“AI must remain under human direction, oversight and control. It must be developed and used in line with international law,” it said.

Albanese was in the audience for Trump’s address to the United Nations, alongside Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

He will come face-to-face with Trump at a gala dinner being held for visiting leaders as part of the UN on Tuesday, New York time.

However, it is not known if the two leaders will sit down for a formal bilateral meeting during the UN General Assembly.

Albanese will tell a UN coalition for child protections in the AI age that while the technology had the potential for opportunities, there were dangers involved.

“We also see that AI can pose a range of potential risks. From the exploitation of children, the potential to enable biological weapons, or even the lose of control of AI systems themselves,” he will say.

“As AI capabilities advance, these risks will increasingly cross borders.”

The UN coalition will be held alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

Albanese will say countries cannot manage the challenges of AI alone.

“As leaders from our nations, UN agencies, civil society and the private sector, we are here to demonstrate our commitment, a commitment to deliver tangible outcomes,” he said.

“We can help build common standards that protect our children and our communities.

“We can develop clear, shared expectations and common guardrails.”

Albanese will also outline plans to the UN forum for Australia to legislate national standards for AI. He announced the standards in Sydney in July, in a speech that established rules for the operation of data centres.

He will tell the forum Australia had the potential to lead the world on AI standards, much as it had on social media reforms, which banned accounts for users under 16.

“We can reaffirm our national sovereignty and our shared humanity,” he will say.

“We can seize and share and shape the opportunities this moment holds, in the interests of all our citizens, but we can only do it together.”

-with AAP