On September 29, 2026, Trump signed an executive order titled “Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence.” It makes it the policy of his administration that “the executive branch shall use the terms 'Super Intelligence' and 'SI' in place of 'Artificial Intelligence' and 'AI' and will not acknowledge the usage of 'Artificial Intelligence' and 'AI' in any applicable setting.” Agencies must use the new terms in “official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents,” though nothing requires rewriting past regulations, contracts or grants. For now “SI” means whatever federal law already defines as artificial intelligence; within 60 days the White House science adviser must propose legislative language for a federal definition of “Super Intelligence.” The order “is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit” enforceable at law.
Trump explained the change at the launch of America.gov that day (see Trump's New AI Government Website Said Biden Won in 2020, Then Stopped Answering 'Political Questions' While He Was Still Speaking): “The word super is the best word of all,” he said, and, “We don't want to hear artificial. Because it's not artificial.” After a lunch with technology executives he told reporters, “We've changed the name officially today,” and, “The name has been officially changed by the biggest, the smartest, the greatest people anywhere in the world.” The week before, CNBC reported, he had polled his social media followers on whether they preferred “SUPER INTELLIGENCE” or “SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCE.”
The executives signed a separate two-page document, the “White House Accord on Super Intelligence,” which Trump posted on Truth Social at 5:24 p.m. Its signature line reads “President of the Unites States.” The White House posted the same image on X the next morning, typo included. The signers were Google's Sundar Pichai, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI's Greg Brockman, Elon Musk for xAI and Nvidia's Jensen Huang. The accord says they “believe each company should implement” four layers of controls and audits, among them an independent external auditor, that the companies “will meet regularly to establish standards and best practices,” and that “Over time, it may make sense to codify these steps into laws or regulations.” Some coverage placed the typo in the executive order; it is in the accord.
Nothing in the accord binds anyone. Speaker Mike Johnson called it “a statement of standards, commitments that are voluntary on behalf of the industry.” Trump said it is “morally binding” and that the executives “almost viewed it as a separate kind of constitution.” Asked why there should not be government-mandated safety guardrails, he said, “Because we have people that love our country and love the world a lot,” and, asked whether that required more than love, pointed to his head: “No, it requires this.” He also floated “forming a committee of sorts, where we put maybe 10 people on that committee” (see Trump Says the Only Guardrail AI Needs Is a 'STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT' and Tells Critics to 'BEWARE').
The rebrand came as the technology polls badly for him. A Quinnipiac poll released that afternoon found 25% of respondents approve of his handling of AI and 58% disapprove. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.): “changing what we call artificial intelligence does nothing to address the very real risks that come with increasingly powerful AI systems.”
Update (October 6, 2026): The Justice Department told its employees to adopt the new term. A memo from acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter directs staff to use “super intelligence” and “SI” in place of AI “to the maximum extent permitted by law,” and says the directive “shall extend to court filings when appropriate,” Reuters reported. The tracker's research tools are built by Anthropic, whose chief executive signed the AI accord described above.
Update (October 8, 2026): Trump escalated: “The White House considers anyone that uses the term, ”Artificial Intelligence,“ as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term, ”Super Intelligence,“ THE ENEMY!” he posted. The Independent cited Anthropic's Claude as an example of the products at issue and said it had asked several AI companies, including Anthropic, whether they would adopt the new term; the tracker's research tools are built by Anthropic.
Update (October 28, 2026): On October 27, responding to a Wall Street Journal opinion newsletter titled “Let AI Be AI,” Trump posted on Truth Social, “In short order, we will be officially BANNING the term, 'AI/Artificial Intelligence,' in all relevant documents, and everything else, due to its inaccuracy,” the Independent and PetaPixel reported.