Why Federal Websites Now Say "SI" Instead of "AI"

Open almost any federal agency page over the next few weeks and you may notice a word you have never seen in an official document: SI. As in “SI adoption,” “the SI workforce,” “the SI race.” It is not a typing error and not a new technology.

On September 29, 2026, the President signed Executive Order 14434, titled Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence. It directs executive departments and agencies to write “Super Intelligence” and “SI” wherever federal policy has said “artificial intelligence” and “AI” for the past seventy years — and it sets a clock for something more consequential than the wording.

What the order actually says

The order is two printed pages. Almost all of its practical effect sits in three subsections.

Section 1 — the policy. The administration’s stated position is that today’s frontier systems “far exceed what was envisioned” when the term artificial intelligence entered use, and that the executive branch therefore “shall use the terms ‘Super Intelligence’ and ‘SI’ in place of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘AI’ and will not acknowledge the usage of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘AI’ in any applicable setting.” That last phrase — will not acknowledge — is unusually absolute for an executive order. Read together with Section 2, it most plausibly governs what agencies write themselves rather than what they are obliged to argue with; the order does not describe any penalty for an agency that uses the old term.

Section 2 — where the words change. Agencies must use the new terms in “official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents within the executive branch,” to the maximum extent permitted by law. Subsection (b) draws the boundary that matters for anyone reading federal paperwork: nothing in the order “requires the alteration of previously issued regulations, Presidential actions, contracts, grants, or other historical documents.”

Section 3 — the definition, and the deadline. This is the part that will still matter in December. Rather than inventing a definition, subsection (a) says “Super Intelligence” and “SI” mean the technologies and systems already covered by the definition of “artificial intelligence” in 15 U.S.C. § 9401(3) — the existing federal statutory definition. That is a rename, not a reclassification.

Then subsection (b) starts a clock: within 60 days of the order, the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology must submit proposed legislative language establishing a federal definition of “Super Intelligence” that reflects the capabilities described in the order. The proposal must assess whether the new definition should modify, expand on, or supersede the statutory AI definition, propose conforming amendments to other statutes, and recommend any further executive action needed. Sixty days from September 29, 2026 lands at roughly November 28, 2026.

That is the key distinction to hold onto: the words changed on the day it was signed; a legal definition still requires Congress. A legislative proposal is not law.

What changes in practice, and what does not

Expect the visible effects to arrive unevenly, because nothing in the order sets a compliance deadline for agency web pages.

• Agency websites and press releases will start saying SI where they said AI. Some agencies will move quickly; others will update pages only when they next publish.
• New reports and guidance drafted from October onward will use the new vocabulary throughout, including in titles and section headings.
• Correspondence from agencies — notices, letters, requests for information — may change words before anything else does.

Meanwhile, three things are unchanged:

• Federal statutes still say “artificial intelligence.” An executive order cannot amend a statute.
• Existing regulations, contracts, grants and Presidential actions keep the old term. Section 2(b) says they do not have to be rewritten.
• The underlying scope is identical. Because Section 3(a) points at the existing statutory definition, anything that counted as AI yesterday counts as SI today.

The practical consequence is a federal government that now runs two vocabularies at once. If you search a federal site for “artificial intelligence,” you will still find older material; if you search for “super intelligence,” you will find what has been published since the end of September. Anyone tracking federal technology policy — or citing agency guidance in a filing, a compliance document or a contract — should search both terms rather than assuming one replaced the other.

Why this matters beyond the wording

Two reasons, one immediate and one not.

The immediate one is discovery. Agencies that have already switched will describe the same programs under a new name. The White House’s own fact sheet applies the new term retrospectively, describing the July 2025 America’s AI Action Plan as identifying “more than 90 Federal actions to win the SI race” — a document whose actual title still contains the old words. Search tools, news alerts and saved queries keyed on “AI” alone will miss material from 2027 onward.

The structural one is that the order separates a rename from a redefinition on purpose. The rename took effect on signature. The definition is a proposal due to the President, after which Congress would have to act — and nothing in the order compels Congress to. If the proposed definition is broader than today’s statutory language, that gap would have to be closed by legislation, not by the order.

How to read federal documents from here

Four habits cover almost everything:

1. Search both terms. “AI” and “SI” now describe the same systems across different vintages of federal documents.
2. Check the date, not the vocabulary. A 2025 report using “AI” is not out of date; a 2027 report using “SI” is not necessarily new policy. The publication date tells you which the document is.
3. Use the definition, not the label. When a rule, contract or guidance document actually matters to you, quote the statutory definition it relies on — today, 15 U.S.C. § 9401(3). Two documents using different words can still mean the same thing.
4. Watch late November. The 60-day legislative proposal is the document to read if you want to know whether “SI” will end up meaning something broader than “AI” did.

The bottom line

Executive Order 14434 changed the federal government’s vocabulary, not its law. “Super Intelligence” and “SI” now mean exactly what “artificial intelligence” and “AI” meant under 15 U.S.C. § 9401(3), and the order itself keeps older regulations, contracts and grants in the old wording. The open question is the definition due from the White House science adviser around November 28, 2026 — and that one needs Congress to become binding.

Byte is the technology site of the Omni Mundi Compendium network. The companion decisions from the same day — the federal services portal and the voluntary safety accord signed by six technology companies — are covered in What America.gov Runs On and The Accord Behind the Rename.

This article is general information about a federal policy document, not legal advice. It is AI-written and independently AI-reviewed before publication; the review standard and this article’s findings are recorded in the network’s editorial review log.