By executive order, AI is now 'Super Intelligence.' Nothing else changed

On September 29 the White House signed Executive Order 14434, titled "Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence." Its main instruction is a find-and-replace. Federal agencies are to use "Super Intelligence" and "SI" in place of "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI" in non-statutory documents, reports and websites, and to stop using the old terms where the order applies.

Section 3 then explains that "Super Intelligence" means exactly what "artificial intelligence" already means under federal law, 15 U.S.C. § 9401(3). Same technology, same legal definition, bigger label. Michael Kratsios, the president's science adviser, has 60 days to propose statutory language that would write the new term into law. Until Congress acts, the statutes still say AI.

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The National Science Foundation is moving faster than the order requires. At a webinar for its math and physical sciences directorate, NSF official Junping Wang told researchers that "your program director may work with you by changing AI to SI" in grant abstracts and related documents, according to AIP's FYI newsletter. The order itself says agencies don't have to revise existing grants, contracts or regulations.

Wang also said the agency's internal AI tools can summarize grant materials "but not for making recommendations." Under the new rules those would be SI tools, presumably.

Fact-checkers at Poynter point out the obvious problem. Superintelligence already has a meaning in the research world: a system that far exceeds human ability in nearly every domain. Nothing shipping today meets that bar. Calling a spam classifier "Super Intelligence" in a federal report won't make it smarter, but it will make the next serious argument about real superintelligence harder to have.

Sources: Poynter, AIP FYI, Freshfields, Fox Business.