The name Artificial Intelligence itself has its roots in the United States. The term was formally introduced in a 1955 proposal for a workshop at Dartmouth College, where a group of scientists proposed exploring whether aspects of human intelligence could be reproduced by machines. The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence was held in 1956 and is widely regarded as a landmark event in the development of AI as a field of research.
More than seven decades later, as countries around the world race to develop increasingly powerful artificial intelligence, the United States has now given the technology a new official name — at least within its federal government.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, signed an executive order directing federal government agencies to use the terms “Super Intelligence” and “SI” instead of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in official communications, public-facing materials, websites, reports, policy documents and other non-statutory government materials.
The move came on the same day Trump met with some of the world’s leading technology and AI executives at the White House to discuss the future and safety of the technology.
Among those involved were Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and OpenAI President Greg Brockman. The meeting also produced a voluntary agreement under which participating companies committed to stronger internal controls and independent reviews of their frontier AI systems.
Why is Trump calling AI ‘Super Intelligence’?
Speaking at the launch of the US government’s new America.gov platform, Trump said the technology had advanced beyond what he believed the term “artificial” suggested.
“This kind of innovation in government is just a preview of what is possible with super intelligence or SI, and that’s the official name in the United States.”
Trump then explained his reasoning:
“This isn’t — this is extreme intelligence. It’s superior intelligence. It’s, uh, supreme also intelligence, but the word super is the best word of all and it’s the simplest.”
He added:
“And so we’re going to be naming it SI, super intelligence, but we don’t want to hear artificial because it’s not artificial.”
Trump also described the technology as potentially larger in impact than some of the biggest technological changes in history.
“The SI, super intelligence, is, they’re saying, bigger than the Industrial Revolution, far bigger than the internet, not even close.”
Does America now have to stop calling it AI?
Not exactly.
The executive order does not mean that every American, private company, university or researcher must stop using the term “AI.” The immediate requirement applies to the executive branch of the US federal government, particularly its official communications and other materials covered by the order.
The order also does not simply rewrite existing laws, contracts or historical documents. Instead, it directs federal agencies to adopt the new terminology where legally permitted.
The administration is also taking steps toward giving “Super Intelligence” a formal federal definition. The President’s Assistant for Science and Technology has been given 60 days to submit proposed legislative language defining “Super Intelligence” and “SI,” including whether the new definition should modify, expand or eventually replace the existing statutory definition of “Artificial Intelligence.”
Therefore, AI will continue to be the familiar term in global technology, science and everyday usage, while SI is now the preferred terminology for the US federal government under Trump’s order.
AI safety and regulation also at the centre of the meeting
The terminology change came amid a wider debate over how advanced AI should be governed.
Following the White House meeting, Trump backed an approach centred on self-regulation by technology companies rather than a broad new federal regulatory regime.
Asked about regulation, Trump said:
“There’s a belief that there should be tremendous self-regulation.”
He also said existing government institutions such as the Department of Justice and the FBI could intervene if companies or individuals crossed legal boundaries.
The participating technology companies separately signed a voluntary safety agreement involving internal monitoring, internal oversight, independent external audits and board-level review of AI safety practices. Trump described the agreement as being “almost like a constitution”, while also calling it “morally binding.”
A new chapter in America’s AI race
The terminology shift comes as the United States continues to position itself at the centre of the global competition over advanced AI, particularly in relation to China.
Trump said the US was leading in the technology and warned against sharing sensitive technological capabilities with China.
“There is nobody in third place. I mean, it’s all between us and China.”
He also argued that the United States should not slow technological development through excessive regulation.
For now, the change is primarily a US federal-government terminology policy, rather than a worldwide renaming of artificial intelligence.
The technology that the world has known for decades as Artificial Intelligence or AI will therefore continue to be called AI in most scientific, commercial and international contexts. But inside the US federal government, Trump’s administration has begun a new terminology era: “Super Intelligence” — SI.
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