The federal government changed the word it uses. It did not change the technology. The assistant you used last month is the same assistant today, and you do not have to rename, rebuy or relearn anything.
What happened
On Tuesday, September 29, 2026, the President met at the White House with the heads of the largest AI companies. Two things came out of that meeting.
- An executive order on the name. Federal agencies were directed to use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in place of “artificial intelligence” and “AI” in their correspondence, public communications, websites and reports. The order says the new term better captures the promise of the technology.
- A voluntary safety pledge. Leaders of Google, Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI and Nvidia signed a document called the White House Accord on Super Intelligence, in which the companies commit to internal controls, audits and reviews of their own systems.
What did not change
- The tools. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and the rest work exactly as they did. No product was replaced.
- The law. Existing statutes still say “artificial intelligence.” The order covers how executive-branch agencies word things. The President’s science adviser was told to develop a formal federal definition.
- What most people call it. Reporting after the event noted that Google, OpenAI and Anthropic kept saying “AI.” A YouGov poll reported by Axios found 9 percent of people preferred “super intelligence” and 53 percent preferred “artificial intelligence.”
- Your obligations. The order places no requirement on a private business. You are free to keep saying AI.
One caution about the word
Before this, “superintelligence” had a specific meaning among researchers: a future system that outperforms people at nearly everything. Nothing on sale today is that. The new official usage applies the same word to ordinary, present-day tools.
So the word now means two different things depending on who is speaking. When someone offers to sell you “SI,” ask the same question you would have asked last year: what does it actually do, and what does it get wrong?
What a small business should do
- Do not rename anything yet. Your customers still search for and say “AI.” Changing your signs and your website to follow a term most people have not adopted costs money and confuses people.
- Know the term when you hear it. If you deal with a federal agency, apply for a federal grant or bid on federal work, you may start to see “SI” in the paperwork. It refers to the same thing.
- Use both where people will look for you. If you describe your business online, a phrase such as “AI, now also called super intelligence or SI” lets you be found under either name without overpromising.
- Be slow to pay more for a new label. A product that was sold as AI in August and is sold as SI in October is the same product. In the days after the order, tens of thousands of new web addresses ending in .si were registered. A new name is not a new capability.
How we use the words
On this site, SI and AI mean the same working tools: software that can answer a phone, draft an email, sort a list or summarize a report. We do not sell anything smarter than a person, and we will tell you where our systems make mistakes. If the name changes again, the work will not.
Questions people are asking
Is SI the same as AI?
In everyday use, yes. SI is the term federal agencies were directed to use for what everyone has been calling AI.
What does SI stand for?
Super Intelligence. You will also see it written as one word, superintelligence.
Do I have to start saying SI?
No. The order applies to federal agencies, not to private businesses or individuals.
Will AI companies rename their products?
Some may. As of this writing the largest ones had not, and Meta and Nvidia were the most visible companies using the new term.