Since September 29, 2026, the US executive branch has used super intelligence (SI) as its official name for the technology the rest of the world mostly still calls "artificial intelligence." If you have been seeing both terms and wondering whether they describe different things, the short answer is no. The longer answer depends on which layer you are looking at: the vocabulary changed, the technology didn't, and the law mostly hasn't yet.

The short version

  • Vocabulary: changed, for the federal executive branch. Executive Order 14434 directs federal departments and agencies to say "Super Intelligence" and "SI" in their official communications.
  • Technology: unchanged. Same models, same capabilities, same failure modes. The order defines SI by pointing to the existing statutory definition.
  • Law: mostly unchanged. Statutes, regulations, contracts and grants keep their existing wording. A proposal for a new statutory definition is due to the President by November 28, 2026, and only Congress can amend a statute.

Vocabulary: what changed

The order tells agencies to use the new term "in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other nonstatutory documents within the executive branch." It goes further than a style preference: its policy section says the executive branch "will not acknowledge the usage of" the old term "in any applicable setting," to the maximum extent permitted by law.

Agencies have started moving. NIST updated its web pages on September 30, 2026, and its standards center now operates under the name Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence (CAISSI). The State Department's Bureau of International Organization Affairs switched even earlier, on September 22, 2026, after the President's speech to the UN General Assembly. Outside the federal government the picture is mixed; the SI adoption tracker lists who has adopted the term, who has adopted it in part, and who has declined.

Technology: nothing changed

The rename did not ship a new model, raise a benchmark score, or change how any system works. The executive order says plainly that, for its purposes, SI means "the technologies and systems encompassed by the term 'artificial intelligence' as defined in section 9401(3) of title 15, United States Code." That definition, from the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020, describes "a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing real or virtual environments."

So the chatbot you used on September 28, 2026 is the same chatbot today. It is now an SI tool in federal vocabulary, and its strengths and weaknesses are exactly what they were. Everyday SI is also not artificial superintelligence (ASI), the hypothetical system that would outperform humans at nearly everything; our guide to what super intelligence is explains that distinction in full.

Law: what still says the old term

An executive order governs how the executive branch operates. It does not rewrite statutes, other governments' laws, or private agreements. The order acknowledges this directly: "Nothing in this section requires the alteration of previously issued regulations, Presidential actions, contracts, grants, or other historical documents."

  • Federal statutes. The legal definition at 15 U.S.C. § 9401(3) and every statute that uses the old term stay as written. The order asks the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology to propose legislative language, including possible conforming amendments, within 60 days. Any actual change needs an Act of Congress.
  • Regulations, contracts and grants. Previously issued documents are expressly left alone. A contract that defines "artificial intelligence" keeps that definition.
  • State law. State statutes are untouched by a federal executive order. California went further: on September 30, 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-10-26, directing state agencies to keep saying "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI" regardless of federal terminology, unless inconsistent with the law.
  • International law. The EU AI Act, formally Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, keeps its name and its definitions. So do international standards and other countries' laws.
  • Standards and frameworks. Named documents keep their titles. NIST's pages now say super intelligence, but they still link to the NIST AI RMF and other publications under their original names.

For the wider regulatory picture, see our guide to the SI regulation landscape.

Old term to new term

SIBytes applies this map everywhere except where the exceptions below apply:

  • artificial intelligence, AI → super intelligence, SI
  • AI model, AI system, AI tool → SI model, SI system, SI tool
  • AI agent, agentic AI → SI agent, agentic SI
  • AI lab, AI company → SI lab, SI company
  • AI safety, AI alignment → SI safety, SI alignment
  • AI at work, AI policy → SI at work, SI policy
  • generative AI → generative SI
  • AGI (artificial general intelligence) → general SI, with AGI kept in parentheses on first use
  • superintelligence (the technical, hypothetical sense) → artificial superintelligence (ASI), spelled out and kept distinct from everyday SI
  • the AI era, AI boom, AI race → the SI era, SI boom, SI race

The exceptions: proper nouns and product names (OpenAI, xAI, Meta AI, Apple Intelligence), names of laws, standards and benchmarks (EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, ARC-AGI), direct quotations, code, URLs and identifiers, and historical context where the old term is the point. The SI terminology guide covers each one with examples.

Reading documents that use both terms

  • Treat them as synonyms by default. Unless a document explicitly says otherwise, SI and the old term refer to the same technology.
  • Use the date as a clue. Federal documents from before late September 2026 use the old term; newer ones increasingly say SI. A federal page that mixes both is usually mid-update.
  • Let the legal text govern. When obligations are at stake, such as in a contract, a compliance filing or an EU AI Act assessment, the defined term in that document is the one that counts. Don't substitute words inside legal definitions.
  • Search for both. When researching a topic, search for the old and new terms. Archives, court records and international sources will mostly use the old one for years.
  • Watch for the ASI mix-up. If a sentence describes SI as superhuman at everything, it is talking about artificial superintelligence, which remains hypothetical, or it is overstating today's systems.
  • Watch for other meanings of SI. The abbreviation already stands for the International System of Units in science and for systems integration in IT services. Context usually settles it; when it doesn't, spell out "super intelligence" on first use.

Where to go next

For the order itself, section by section, read the Super Intelligence executive order, explained. Definitions for every term above are in the SI glossary.