Trump's order tells federal agencies to call AI 'super intelligence'

An Axios reporter checked government pages after the order, found some still saying "artificial intelligence," and asked the White House for comment, The Next Web reported ^[5]. Those pages are what the order governs. It speaks only to federal departments and agencies, and it sets no penalty for anyone who keeps the old term ^[6]. It also says it creates no rights enforceable against the government or any other person ^[7].

For a company selling software to an agency, that splits the paperwork in two. The customer's statements, websites and reports are covered ^[2]. The Next Web's account of the order does not extend it to contracts or bids ^[6]. Courts give the government wide room over its own words: under the government speech doctrine, agencies can choose their own terms, according to the Freedom Forum ^[13]. "The Free Speech Clause restricts government regulation of private speech; it does not regulate government speech," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a 2009 Supreme Court ruling ^[14].

Pressure on private companies is a different matter. In May 2024, a unanimous Supreme Court decided NRA v. Vullo against a New York official who had pressed insurers to stop doing business with the gun group ^[15]. "A government official cannot coerce a private party to punish or suppress disfavored speech on her behalf," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the court ^[16].

A private style guide can still cost access. The Associated Press kept "Gulf of Mexico" after the 2025 renaming order, and the White House barred its reporters from press pool events that February ^[17]. Judge Trevor McFadden ordered access restored on April 8, 2025 ^[18]. An appeals panel paused most of that order 2-1 on June 6, and The Next Web could find no final ruling after arguments on Nov. 24, 2025 ^[19].

The legal definition has not moved. Artificial intelligence is defined in the National AI Initiative Act of 2020, and only Congress can change that ^[8]. Renames that need Congress take time. Trump's September 2025 order allowed the Pentagon to use "Department of War" as a secondary title and nothing more ^[9]. A defense bill that would write the change into law passed the House 216 to 212 on July 23, 2026. The Senate had not passed its version ^[9].

The term also makes a claim about the product. Nick Bostrom popularised superintelligence as the word for an intellect far beyond human ability in nearly every area ^[21]. Jean-Pierre Dubé, a University of Chicago marketing professor, told Newsweek the new name is unlikely to catch on soon because of that meaning ^[20]. Jeff Bezos is on the other side. "I do like SI, because 'artificial' is not a very flattering thing," Bezos told Fox News ^[11]. A product page that calls a document-search tool "SI" is describing it, in the field's usual sense, as better than people at almost everything ^[21].

Sort each document by two questions: who wrote it, and whether it states law or describes a product. In the agency's own descriptive prose, the order applies and "SI" will show up ^[2]. Where the agency cites the statute, the 2020 Act's term still holds ^[8]. Your contract language should track the statute until Congress changes it. Marketing copy is the one square with a real choice, because the order sets no penalty for the old term ^[6]. I'd keep "AI" on product pages and in contracts, and use "super intelligence" when quoting or answering an agency document that uses it. The tradeoff is a proposal whose wording differs from the customer's own website.