Trump Signs Executive Order Directing Federal Agencies to Replace Artificial Intelligence With Super Intelligence

President Trump signed an executive order on September 30, 2026, directing every federal agency to replace the term "artificial intelligence" with "super intelligence" in official documents, websites, reports, and policy materials. It is a rebranding move — but in government, what you call something shapes how you regulate it.

The order arrived the same day as the "[White House](/government/white-house-national-ai-framework) Accord on Super Intelligence," a voluntary safety framework signed by the CEOs of Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, xAI, and Nvidia. Together, the two actions mark a deliberate White House effort to reframe U.S. AI leadership around the term "super intelligence" — positioning America's frontier AI programs as categorically more powerful than what other nations are developing.

What Changes Operationally

According to Nextgov, the order applies to all federal agencies and covers official correspondence, agency websites, published reports, and policy documents going forward. Existing documents are not retroactively relabeled, but new materials from agencies including the DoD, NSF, NIST, and others must use "super intelligence" where they previously wrote "artificial intelligence."

The practical effect: Every agency that previously published AI guidance, AI strategies, or AI procurement policies will now need updated terminology in future documents. NIST's AI Risk Management Framework, DoD AI policy memos, and agency AI use-case inventories are all in scope.

Why the Terminology Shift Matters

Terminology in policy documents is not cosmetic. When NIST defines a term, it becomes the working definition across federal procurement and contracting. When DoD switches to a new label, defense contractors follow. The move from "artificial intelligence" to "super intelligence" signals that the administration views current frontier systems as qualitatively different — not incremental software improvements but a new category of capability.

Internationally, the shift creates a framing gap. The EU AI Act, OECD AI Principles, and most allied-nation policy frameworks use "artificial intelligence." U.S. agencies will now be writing policy under a different label, which could complicate coordination on shared standards.

What to Watch

Whether NIST, NSF, and other standards-setting agencies update foundational documents like the AI RMF to reflect the new terminology — or quietly continue using "AI" in technical contexts — will reveal how seriously the executive branch enforces the order beyond its symbolic signing-day effect.