Some agencies and tech CEOs begin using Trump’s “Super Intelligence” label

President Donald Trump signed an executive order at the end of September that directs federal agencies to replace the term “artificial intelligence” with “Super Intelligence” (capitalized and abbreviated “SI”). The order’s rationale, as stated, is that today’s AI systems “amplify human ingenuity” rather than merely “imitate” intelligence, and the government’s terminology should reflect that view.

Within a month, the new label has begun to appear on government solicitations, such as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement request for “SI‑powered” surveillance equipment for detention facilities. Several agency websites have silently swapped the terminology, and the National Institutes of Health now displays a banner warning visitors that both the old and new terms may be seen during the transition. However, the rollout has not been uniform: the Pentagon’s Project Meridian announcement used the former term, a Federal Trade Commission release employed “superintelligence” (lower‑case and uncapitalized), and recent Health and Human Services press releases show no sign of the change.

The rebranding effort is also extending beyond government. On October 27, President Trump criticized the Wall Street Journal for not using “Super Intelligence,” suggesting a future rule could ban “artificial intelligence” from government documents. Newsmax, despite describing itself as “supportive of the President and his policies,” likewise has not adopted the term.

Among technology leaders, the White House Accord on Super Intelligence was signed by six prominent executives: Sundar Pichai (Google), Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Greg Brockman (OpenAI), Elon Musk (xAI), and Jensen Huang (Nvidia). CNBC’s analysis of third‑quarter earnings calls found that only Zuckerberg and Musk used “Super Intelligence” consistently; Zuckerberg’s company had already been using “superintelligence” since the prior year. Musk’s companies appear to use the term most frequently, and he pledged to rename SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI, though he still mixes “SI” and “AI” in his own posts. Executives from Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet continued to use “AI,” while Microsoft’s recent shareholder letter referenced the “Super Intelligence era.” Huang has referenced the term but also uses “AI.”

Federal agency heads are now required to draft a new legislative definition of “Super Intelligence” for presidential review by the end of the month, and government staff are spending time creating guides on how to navigate the rebrand. Critics note the potential cost in time and taxpayer dollars, while observers warn that making the terminology a loyalty test could polarize the emerging national conversation about AI, which many Americans consider a top election issue.