AIBRIEF
A Sept 29 executive order tells federal agencies to call AI 'superintelligence,' pinning the new label to the same 2020 statute that already covers spam filters and fraud detection.
On Sept. 29, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order titled 'Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence' that tells the federal executive branch to replace 'artificial intelligence' with 'superintelligence' in official correspondence, public statements, agency websites, reports, and policy papers. Existing regulations, presidential directives, contracts, and grants keep their current language.
The surprise sits in Section 3. The order does not write a new definition; it points 'superintelligence' straight at 15 U.S.C. §9401(3), the definition the National AI Initiative Act of 2020 already uses for 'artificial intelligence.' That statutory text covers 'any machine-based system that makes predictions, recommendations, or decisions according to human-set objectives,' broad enough to reach product recommenders, fraud detection, and the spam filter in your inbox. A third-party analysis flags the same reach: the rename has pulled ordinary recommendation and filtering systems under the new label without changing what they are.
The order does not make any system more capable. It does shift the language federal communications and policy papers will carry. A White House fact sheet, quoted by the same analysis, frames the move as recognition that 'today's technology has moved beyond merely mimicking or automating human intelligence, so it needs a name that matches its potential.'
The parsing tool is the statute. Every new 'superintelligence' claim is best checked against what 15 U.S.C. §9401(3) actually reaches.