US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing federal agencies to use the term “Super Intelligence” or “SI” instead of “Artificial Intelligence” or “AI” in official government communications, formalising a terminology change he had proposed earlier in September.
The executive order, signed on September 29, applies to official correspondence, websites, public communications, reports, policy documents and other non-statutory documents across the executive branch. It does not require previously issued regulations, presidential actions, contracts, grants or historical documents to be rewritten.
Under the order, “Super Intelligence” initially retains the same legal definition as artificial intelligence under existing US law. The change therefore does not, by itself, create a new technical category of AI systems or redefine the capabilities required for a system to qualify under federal law.
The order also directs the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology to submit proposed legislative language within 60 days for a federal definition of Super Intelligence. That proposal must assess whether the new terminology should modify, expand or replace the existing statutory definition of artificial intelligence and identify any related changes that may be required in federal law.
Trump had publicly proposed the terminology change during his address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 22. He argued that the word “artificial” did not accurately represent the capabilities of modern AI systems and said the US government would move towards using Super Intelligence instead.
The terminology shift comes as the Trump administration continues to place AI development and adoption at the centre of its technology agenda. On the same day, the White House also launched America.gov, a digital platform intended to provide a unified entry point for accessing federal government information and services. White House materials describing the platform already use the term Super Intelligence.
The executive order frames the change around the administration’s view that advances in AI increasingly amplify human capabilities across areas including science, medicine and creativity. However, the terminology differs from the way “superintelligence” has traditionally been used in parts of the technology and research community, where it can refer to hypothetical systems that substantially exceed human intelligence across a broad range of tasks.
For technology companies, marketers and the broader AI industry, the immediate effect is primarily on US executive branch terminology rather than a mandatory industry-wide renaming. Private companies, researchers and organisations are not required by the order to stop using “artificial intelligence” or “AI”.
The longer-term implications will depend partly on whether Congress adopts a new statutory definition and whether the terminology gains broader acceptance beyond federal government communications.
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