WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 (Infinite Headlines) — President Donald J. Trump’s executive order on “Super Intelligence” changes the language federal agencies must use for artificial intelligence. It does not adopt a new legal definition of the technology or establish that machines have reached the much higher level of intelligence the term can describe.
Signed on September 29, 2026, Executive Order 14434, “Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence,” directs executive departments and agencies to replace “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” with “Super Intelligence” and “SI,” to the maximum extent permitted by law.
Understanding the change requires separating two meanings: the label the administration is applying to an existing category of technology, and the concept of machines whose intelligence greatly exceeds human abilities.
What changes in government communications?
The order covers official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents and other executive-branch documents that are not statutes — laws enacted by Congress.
That means the naming rule reaches beyond public announcements into the documents agencies use to explain and carry out policy. Its reach is limited, however, by existing law: the directive applies only where legally permitted.
The order does not require agencies to revise previously issued regulations, presidential actions, contracts, grants or other historical documents. Those records do not have to be rewritten simply to replace the old terminology.
Trump’s order says the new language is intended to reflect what the administration considers the technology’s advancing capabilities and promise. Its descriptions of the capabilities of frontier systems — systems at the leading edge of development — are the administration’s claims, rather than independent verification that superintelligence exists.
Does “SI” now mean something different from “AI” in law?
For purposes of the order, generally no. Except where the law provides otherwise, “Super Intelligence” and “SI” cover the same technologies and systems as “artificial intelligence” under the existing federal definition in 15 U.S.C. § 9401(3).
The order incorporates that statutory category rather than replacing it with a higher threshold of machine ability. A technology does not have to meet philosopher Nick Bostrom’s concept of superintelligence to fall within the order’s use of “SI.”
The incorporated definition remains applicable unless a later lawful presidential action or an act of Congress supersedes it. The immediate change is therefore one of terminology, not an expansion of the definition used by the order.
What does superintelligence mean as a concept?
In his book Superintelligence, Bostrom describes an intellect that greatly exceeds human cognitive performance in virtually all domains of interest.
That is a substantially more demanding concept than the executive order’s use of an existing statutory AI category. Bostrom’s definition concerns the breadth and level of a system’s abilities, not the name a government chooses to use for it.
A related idea is an “intelligence explosion.” The Machine Intelligence Research Institute describes this as a possible scenario in which a machine becomes better than humans at designing AI, then improves its own intelligence through a feedback loop. Improved intelligence could, in that scenario, support further improvements.
The institute presents this as a possibility, not an observed consequence of the executive order.
Could the federal definition change later?
The order sets a separate process for considering that question. Within 60 days of September 29, 2026, the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology must submit proposed legislative language to the president, after consulting agency heads as the assistant considers appropriate.
The proposal must assess whether a new federal definition should modify, expand or supersede the existing statutory AI definition. It must also address possible related amendments to federal laws and recommend any further presidential or executive action. The order itself does not adopt that future definition.
What limits apply to implementation?
Implementation must comply with applicable law and depends on available appropriations — funding authorized for government spending. The order creates no enforceable right or benefit.
It also preserves existing agency authorities and the specified functions of the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Publication costs are assigned to the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
