AI by any other name? White House directs federal agencies to enter the era of 'super intelligence'

U.S. President Donald Trump 29 Sept. issued an executive order titled "Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence," directing executive departments and agencies to replace the terms "artificial intelligence" and "AI" with "super intelligence" and "SI" in official federal communications and other nonstatutory documents.

The immediate change is linguistic, not a wholesale rewrite of U.S. laws governing AI. For purposes of the order, "super intelligence" currently reaches the same technologies and systems covered by the existing federal statutory definition of AI in Section 9401(3) of title 15, United States Code.

That distinction creates the more important governance question. Organizations may soon encounter "SI" in federal agency materials while statutes, state laws, contracts, internal policies, vendor questionnaires and governance frameworks continue to use "AI."

For privacy and AI governance professionals, the practical issue is therefore not whether every reference to AI should change. It is how to manage two vocabularies that may refer to the same systems in some settings but not necessarily in every legal or operational context.

Key takeaways

• Federal agencies are directed to use "super intelligence" and "SI" in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents and other nonstatutory documents, to the maximum extent permitted by law.

• The order does not itself replace the statutory definition of AI. For now, it expressly borrows the definition in Section 9401(3) of title 15, U.S.C.

• Existing regulations, contracts and other historical documents do not need to be rewritten.

• Within 60 days, the assistant to the president for science and technology must submit proposed legislative language addressing a federal definition of "super intelligence," possible changes to existing statutory references to AI and any additional executive action that may be appropriate.

From 'artificial' to 'super'