Trump orders agencies to say Super Intelligence instead of AI

President Trump signed an executive order telling federal agencies to use Super Intelligence, or SI, in place of artificial intelligence in new official writing, while the order keeps the existing legal definition of AI until Congress or a later action changes it.

The White House is changing the name the government prints, not the law that defines the technology. Agencies have to say Super Intelligence on new official paper. The statute still calls the same systems artificial intelligence until Congress acts.

On Tuesday, 29 September 2026, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Inaugurating The Era Of Super Intelligence.” The White House published the order and a fact sheet the same day. Both pages are dated September 29, 2026. The order is signed Donald J. Trump. The fact sheet says he signed it to replace the term “Artificial Intelligence” (“AI”) with “Super Intelligence” (“SI”) in the executive branch, so the name matches what the fact sheet calls a continuously advancing frontier.

What agencies have to print. To the maximum extent the law allows, departments and agencies must use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” instead of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other documents inside the executive branch that are not statutes. Official correspondence means letters and memos. A policy document is a written plan or rule. A statute is a law Congress passed. The fact sheet says agencies are to no longer acknowledge “Artificial Intelligence” or “AI” in those papers. Section 1 of the order states the same policy: the executive branch will not acknowledge those older terms in any applicable setting.

What the order leaves alone. The implementation section says nothing in it requires anyone to alter regulations, presidential actions, contracts, grants, or other historical documents that were already issued. A regulation is a rule an agency has already published. A grant is money the government has already awarded. Old papers can keep the old name. The order also says it does not create a right anyone can take to court, that it is carried out consistent with existing law, and that it depends on money Congress has provided. The Office of Science and Technology Policy, the White House science office, pays to publish the order.

What the new words mean inside this order. For this order, and except where the law already says otherwise, “Super Intelligence” and “SI” mean the technologies and systems covered by “artificial intelligence” as defined in section 9401(3) of title 15 of the United States Code. That section is the federal statute’s definition of artificial intelligence: a machine-based system that, for a set of human-defined objectives, makes predictions, recommendations, or decisions that influence real or virtual environments. The order adopts that bucket. This section does not define Super Intelligence as a system that is smarter than a person. The order says this definition governs unless a later presidential action, consistent with the law, or an act of Congress replaces it.

The assignment that comes next. Within 60 days, the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, consulting other agency heads as that adviser sees fit, has to send the president proposed legislative language for a federal definition of “Super Intelligence” and “SI.” Sixty days is about two months. The proposal has to reflect the capabilities described in the order’s purpose section. It has to assess whether, and how far, the new definition should modify, expand upon, or supersede the existing statutory definition of artificial intelligence. It has to include any conforming amendments to statutory references to “artificial intelligence” and “AI,” as appropriate. It also has to recommend any further presidential or executive action needed to carry the proposed definition through the executive branch. Proposed legislative language is a draft for Congress. It is not a law that has passed.

Why the order says the name should change. It says the modern field of artificial intelligence was born in the United States, and that today’s frontier systems do more than imitate or automate pieces of human intelligence. It says they increasingly amplify human ingenuity and unlock new forms of creativity. It says the term Super Intelligence more appropriately captures that promise. Those sentences are the order’s reason for the label. They sit next to the definition above, which still points at the existing statute.

The fact sheet’s extra lines, kept as the White House’s own account. It says the United States has led the field for over 70 years. It says the new name will keep departments focused on expanding what the technology can do. It also restates earlier administration programs under the new name, including more than $5 billion announced for the Genesis Mission, the July 2025 AI Action Plan’s more than 90 federal actions, and a March 2026 policy framework. Those lines are the fact sheet’s. The order’s operative sections are the naming rule, the carve-out for old documents, the statutory definition, and the 60-day proposal.

The same afternoon, outside the West Wing, Trump told reporters, “We’ve changed the name officially today.” CNBC reports that the two-page accord he posted from the day’s lunch with technology executives does not itself declare a name change. The accord uses Super Intelligence in its title. The naming instruction is this order. The lunch and the accord are a separate filing.

In plain terms, the president ordered the executive branch to print Super Intelligence instead of artificial intelligence on new official writing. For now, the order says those words mean the same systems the statute already calls artificial intelligence. A science adviser has 60 days to propose language for Congress if the administration wants a definition that goes further. The order does not, by itself, amend that statute.

The picture is a desk graphic of that split. A wine-colored card, cream type, a gold rule. Three lines: agencies print SI, old papers stay, and the statute still says AI. A band at the bottom marks the 60-day assignment to propose a federal definition. It is a diagram of the order. It is not a photograph of a signing.