Trump Orders Government to Stop Saying 'AI' — Here's What Changes

On Sept. 29, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to swap the words "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI" for "Super Intelligence" and "SI" in official communications, websites, reports, and policy documents. The administration argues the word "artificial" makes the technology sound fake, and that today's systems have moved far beyond what the term envisioned when it was coined about 70 years ago.

What it does not do is equally important. There is no government-wide find-and-replace. Existing laws, regulations, contracts, grants, and historical documents keep the old wording and stay fully in force. Private companies like OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia are not directly required to change anything. So ChatGPT, Gemini, and the AI tools you already use will work exactly the same tomorrow as they do today.

The rename also creates confusion. In AI research, "superintelligence" already means a hypothetical system smarter than all humans — a very different idea from the everyday AI we use now. The order initially stretches the term to cover ordinary AI anyway. A 60-day process could produce a new official federal definition, and Big Tech separately signed its own "Super Intelligence" safety accord.

Why should you care? Mostly, this is a symbolic language shift with real potential down the road. Watch what follows: a new federal definition could eventually shape rules, funding, and safety requirements. Businesses that sell to government may need to update their marketing language. But for now, no law, price, or product has actually changed.