Will a decree be enough to change a concept that was promised to transform humanity?
On September 29, Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14434, titled Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence. It orders federal agencies to replace “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” with “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in their official communications, their websites, their reports, and their non-statutory documents.
A change in terminology, not law
The text rests on presidential powers and applies “to the extent permitted by law.” It concerns the federal executive branch and for him alone.
“All official titles and the names of governance bodies, systems, platforms, inventories and programs of the department must use SI instead of AI,” the State Department instructed its staff, according to Government Executive.
At NASA, the implementation of Executive Order 14434 is to be completed on all affected materials by the end of December. According to Space.com, this rapid rollout also involves “a major technical update likely to disrupt existing software integrations.”
There is, however, no obligation for private companies, the media, researchers, or citizens who remain free to continue referring to “artificial intelligence.”
The decree itself sets its limits. It does not require rewriting regulations, presidential acts, contracts, grants, or historically published documents, and it does not create any enforceable rights against the federal government, its agencies, or its agents.
Why “Super Intelligence”?
So why this replacement? The White House asserts that the capabilities of cutting-edge systems “far exceed” what was imagined when the term “artificial intelligence” was coined. According to the text, these technologies no longer merely imitate or automate certain aspects of human intelligence: they amplify human ingenuity and open up new possibilities in science, medicine, and elsewhere.
The new term should therefore better reflect, according to the president, “the promise, the potential and the rapidly advancing capabilities” of these technologies.
Legally, the switch is for now purely semantic: “Super Intelligence” and “SI” denote technologies already covered by the U.S. definition of artificial intelligence.
It may be only a first step. The decree tasks the presidential science and technology adviser to deliver to the president, within 60 days, a legislative-language proposal to establish a federal definition of “Super Intelligence” and of “SI.”
This work will need to assess whether this definition should modify, broaden, or replace the AI definition currently enshrined in law, identify the legal references to adjust, and recommend the necessary executive actions.
If the decree does not create a new legal category, it opens a terminological review that could lead to a legislative overhaul.
Musk and Zuckerberg have embraced the change
The vocabulary has already crossed the walls of government. CNBC noted that Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, both close to Donald Trump, used “super intelligence” in their quarterly earnings calls.
At Meta, its founder and CEO spoke of “significant advances” toward a “personal superintelligence for everyone.” A phrase that appears in the Q3 2026 earnings release, published on October 21.
For SpaceX, Elon Musk announced that SpaceXAI would become SpaceXSI, a renaming that echoes White House terminology.
Other American players in the sector have been more reserved.
In their late-October earnings calls, Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet largely continued to refer to “AI.”
Microsoft plays both sides. In remarks, Satya Nadella highlighted that “building AI to empower people” is among the group’s priorities. Yet the annual report, filed the previous week, mentions “super intelligence” eight times, starting with the letter to shareholders.
Nevertheless, the semantic shift has already yielded a winner: Slovenia’s domain name. The .si top-level domain registered thirteen times more domains in September than in August, against a backdrop of Donald Trump’s statements.
