It's even worse than that; the president has declared anyone using the term "AI" is the Enemy, and aiding the Enemy is a capital crime.

You could say the president is just joking about such things; I don't think this will actually be acted upon, but the political/legal situation is quite rough.

I hear they have great "AI" programs in El Salvador! If you say the right things you might even be selected for a free trip here. Such a bargain. And the weight loss plan their nutrition experts have put together is top tier.

maybe it should be re interpreted as silicon intelligence

I like "service(d) inference". It works both ways.

Federal executive agencies have to be loyal to the government because they are the government. Working for the government and refusing to do what it wants is at best dereliction of work duties and at worst treason.

There are exceptions to that - government employees are not required to follow illegal orders. The law says you can't be retaliated against for refusing such orders. There are also legal protections for whistleblowers reporting wrongdoing, at least theoretically (ask Snowden about that.)

This doesn't apply to executive orders renaming things of course, since they're not illegal. But the point is that working for the government is not some sort of legal suicide pact.

Even when asked to do something illegal, your options are to quit or to be in big trouble one way or another.

If you do the thing then you're a criminal. If you don't do it, your employer will still do everything they can to make your life hell, such as illegally firing you for insubordination to an illegal order - you might get your backpay in court if you're lucky later, but you're never getting your job back.

Must cover for child abusers and bomb schools - not a great time (or maybe a great time if you are into that sort of thing) to be a government employee

Funny, I though they were loyal to the constitution and the law, not to whoever sits on the chair... I guess the US is really a monarchy.

That's the literal definition of a loyalty test.