Trump Order Directs US Agencies to Replace 'Artificial Intelligence' With 'Super Intelligence'
Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday directing federal departments and agencies to use the terms "Super Intelligence" and "SI" in place of "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI" in official usage.
The order, dated September 29, 2026, requires the new terminology to be formally defined and adopted across the relevant U.S. government offices and departments. According to the text of the order, the change applies to official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents and other non-statutory documents.
Mr. Trump said the change was appropriate when taking into consideration the "promise, potential, and rapidly advancing capabilities" of these technologies. "The terminology used by the Federal Government should reflect the transformative capabilities of these technologies and the limitless opportunities they create for the American people," the order states. "Accordingly, the term 'Super Intelligence' more appropriately captures the promise, potential, and rapidly advancing capabilities of these technologies."
The Associated Press reported that U.S. diplomats have been instructed to make the change in their communications and official correspondence. Media outlets reported earlier in the week that China's foreign ministry had acknowledged the change in terminology and signalled its respect for the policy update.
An executive order is a directive from the President to federal agencies on how they should function within existing law. It does not amend legislation passed by Congress, and the order's own wording limits its application to non-statutory documents. References to artificial intelligence in existing statutes therefore remain unchanged unless and until lawmakers act. Neither the White House nor the agencies concerned have said how the change will be reflected in contracts, technical standards, research funding or procurement rules.
The terminology decision revives a long-running discussion about language used to describe computing systems. The term "artificial intelligence" was coined in the mid-1950s by researchers, including John McCarthy, and has since been used broadly to describe systems that perform tasks associated with human reasoning, such as language processing, pattern recognition and decision support.
In academic and technical literature, "superintelligence" carries a more specific and narrower meaning. It is generally used to describe a hypothetical system whose general cognitive abilities would surpass those of humans — an idea discussed at length by philosophers and researchers such as Nick Bostrom in his 2014 book Superintelligence. Applying this term to present-day systems differs from that established academic usage. Governments remain free to define terms for their own internal communication, but such definitions do not by themselves alter what a technology can do.
The order does not appear to specify a technical or legal definition of "Super Intelligence," nor does it indicate whether the term will align with the vocabulary used by researchers, industry and international standards bodies. How agencies translate the directive into everyday practice — in correspondence, websites and reports — is likely to become clearer in the coming weeks.
Demands for clarity are also likely from Congress, where any change to statutory language would require legislative approval, and from allied governments that coordinate with Washington on technology policy. What a change of name means for the substance of policy — funding, regulation, safety testing and international cooperation — remains an open question.
This report is based on the text of the executive order as described by the White House and on reports by the Associated Press and other media outlets.
