President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order on September 29, 2026, titled "Inaugurating The Era Of Super Intelligence," directing all executive departments and agencies to replace "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI" with "Super Intelligence" and "SI" in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents1,4,6.
The order followed a White House luncheon with technology executives including Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang, SpaceX and Tesla chief Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei3. Those executives, along with OpenAI's Greg Brockman, appeared to sign a separate two-page document Trump shared on his Truth Social account. House Speaker Mike Johnson described what attendees signed as a "statement of principles". The document, titled "White House Accord on Super Intelligence," states that signatories agree to meet regularly to establish safety standards, implement robust internal processes to ensure their technology behaves as intended, and accept that every company is responsible for developing its technology safely. Trump called the accord "morally binding".
Terminology mandate and legislative track
The full text of the order, published on whitehouse.gov, frames the directive in nationalist terms, stating that "the modern field of artificial intelligence was born in the United States" and that capabilities have moved beyond what was envisioned when the term first came into use roughly 70 years ago. "The word super is the best word of all, and it's the simplest," Trump said at an event earlier on September 29 announcing the launch of America.gov. He added that Chinese President Xi Jinping, who visited the White House the prior week, "loves it". Trump described the technological shift as "much bigger than the Internet".
The order requires the executive branch to adopt the new terminology "to the maximum extent permitted by law". Within 60 days, the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology must submit proposed legislative language to Congress to establish a federal definition of "Super Intelligence" and "SI". Previously issued regulations, presidential actions, contracts, grants, and historical documents are not required to be altered. The order applies the existing statutory definition of artificial intelligence under Title 15 of the U.S. Code to the new term.
Trump had crowdsourced a name the prior week by asking followers whether they preferred "SUPER INTELLIGENCE" or "SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCE". The renaming follows a pattern: Trump signed an order shortly after taking office directing that the Gulf of Mexico be called the "Gulf of America" and later asserted Lake Ontario would become "Lake America".
Polling and political backdrop
The executive order arrives as public opinion on AI policy tilts against the administration. A Quinnipiac University poll conducted September 24–27, with a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points, found 25% of respondents approve of Trump's handling of AI while 58% disapprove. CNBC reported the rebrand comes weeks before the midterm election, which polls suggest is increasingly shaped by Americans' concerns about rapid AI advances.
During the luncheon, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the industry and the administration need to cooperate. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the industry needed to ensure people could trust the technology. Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton said being a leader in AI is "the most important thing for national security".
ANALYSIS The terminological shift carries no immediate regulatory burden on AI developers, since the order explicitly exempts existing regulations and contracts from revision. The practical effect is confined to executive-branch communications and branding. The 60-day legislative-language deadline, however, opens a channel through which a binding federal definition of "Super Intelligence" could eventually reach statute, a step that would carry substantive legal weight beyond nomenclature. The voluntary accord signed by six CEOs adds no enforceable obligation but creates a public record of industry alignment with the administration's framing.