Trump's Executive Order Renames AI in Agency Documents

Announced at the UN, alongside a rejection

Trump announced the rename in his address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, September 22, in the same breath as a rejection of international oversight. The White House’s account of the speech quotes him: “The United States totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme of control for the Artificial Intelligence being spoken of so much now, hereinafter officially called ‘Super Intelligence.’” From the podium he added that “all of United States documents, and hopefully the world” would use “super” instead of “artificial,” because the word “artificial” made the technology “sound fake.” [5][3]

The speech answered a live proposal. On September 21, leaders led by Finland’s President Alexander Stubb and Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre issued “A Call for Control of Frontier AI Models,” asking companies for mandatory pre-deployment testing and independent evaluation, and asking UN member states to explore an international institution able to “set standards, enable verification, and convene states when capability thresholds are crossed.” More leaders endorsed it over the following days. Fortune reported that the United States and China both abstained. [6][4]

A speech binds no one. On the day, Breaking Defense noted that the White House had said nothing about how the rename would be put into effect. The rejection of international oversight remained a stated position: no treaty, vote or withdrawal followed from it. [3]

What the order makes agencies do

The order, “Inaugurating The Era Of Super Intelligence,” is dated September 29. It declares it the policy of the administration that, “to the maximum extent permitted by law,” the executive branch will use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” and “will not acknowledge the usage” of the old terms. Section 2 applies that to agencies’ official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents and other non-statutory documents. [1]

The order does not reach backward. Nothing in it requires agencies to alter previously issued regulations, presidential actions, contracts, grants or other historical documents. Its purpose section argues that today’s systems “do much more than imitate or automate discrete aspects of human intelligence,” and that the government’s vocabulary should reflect that. [1]

The legal definition stays put, for now

Section 3 defines “Super Intelligence” as exactly the technologies already covered by the statutory definition of artificial intelligence in 15 U.S.C. 9401(3), until a later presidential action or an Act of Congress says otherwise. It then gives the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology 60 days, to late November 2026, to send the president proposed legislative language for a federal definition of the new term, with an assessment of whether it should modify or supersede the statutory definition and any conforming amendments. [1]

The standard closing provisions apply: the order is implemented subject to law and appropriations and creates no right enforceable against the government. Companies, contracts and statutes are untouched. What changed on September 29 is the language federal agencies are told to use. [1]

A name already taken

CNBC reported the signing on September 29, the same day Trump hosted AI executives at the White House, and noted that he had asked his social media followers the week before to choose between “SUPER INTELLIGENCE” and “SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCE.” It placed the order beside a Quinnipiac poll, conducted September 24 to 27, in which 25% of respondents approved of his handling of AI and 58% disapproved. [2]

Atlas interpretation: Breaking Defense pointed out the collision: researchers have long used “superintelligence” or “artificial superintelligence” for a hypothetical system that exceeds human intelligence across the board, which does not yet exist. Under the order, the federal government now uses that word for every system the old statute calls AI, including ordinary ones. A reader of a federal document after September 29 cannot assume “SI” means what it means in a research paper. [3][1]

Atlas interpretation: The same afternoon’s White House Accord on Super Intelligence carried the new name in its title, and the fact sheet closing Xi Jinping’s state visit had already said both leaders agreed to use it. CNBC noted that the accord itself says nothing about a name change. [2]