On September 29, 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order during a White House meeting with tech leaders, directing federal executive agencies to replace "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) with "Super Intelligence" (SI) in official correspondence, websites, reports, and policy documents. From that day on, at least in the federal government's official vocabulary, the term "AI" has been formally retired.
Where the order reaches
This is an executive order, not a suggestion, and it binds the federal executive branch: all official correspondence, website content, reports, and policy documents in applicable settings must adopt the new terminology. The contrast with another document released the same day is telling — Trump also published a one-page "White House Accord on Super Intelligence: Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities" on Truth Social, asking OpenAI, Google, Meta, Anthropic, NVIDIA, and xAI to build internal controls, submit to external audits, and set up board oversight committees. But that accord is voluntary: no penalties, no requirement to publish audit results, and no mandatory incident reporting to the government (White House AI super-intelligence accord lands: six tech giants promise an "emergency brake").
The renaming order is different: if you're a federal agency, you comply. Asked whether the accord was binding, Trump replied, "I think it's morally binding," calling it "almost like a constitution, in a way." A voluntary pact that binds companies through moral force on one side, an executive order that directly governs the government itself on the other — the White House played both hands at once.
Who was in the room, and what was left unsaid
Attendees included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, and Elon Musk. The meeting also covered the rapid expansion of data centers needed to train and run models, along with community concerns about electricity demand and rising utility bills; Trump said he is considering a 10-member AI safety oversight board and will soon appoint a new White House official to lead AI policy, while the administration also unveiled an AI-based tool to help citizens access government services.
One renaming order, two kinds of binding force
The renaming itself changes no legal obligations and adds not a dollar of safety investment — but it is a clear signal: the White House wants "super intelligence," the grander narrative, to become the default setting of official discourse. For ordinary readers it's a talking point; for companies and institutions dealing with the federal government, the wording in paperwork, bids, and compliance documents will have to follow — legal and compliance teams will soon have to decide whether "AI safety" becomes "SI safety."
More worth watching is the sequence: first get the giants to sign voluntary safety commitments, then unify the government's own vocabulary by executive order. Once the terminology is unified, the policy documents, procurement standards, and safety requirements that follow all share a common language. A name is the easiest thing to change — and the first to be remembered. But what really decides the direction of this round of AI governance is whether the accord's four voluntary layers of control, with no penalties attached, can grow teeth.
