Artificial Intelligence has been called \u201cAI\u201d for decades. Now, Donald Trump is changing that.<\/span><\/p>\n On September 29, 2026, <\/span>Trump signed an executive order that officially introduced <\/span>\"<\/b>Super Intelligence,\u201d or SI<\/span><\/a>, as the preferred term for AI in U.S. federal government communications.<\/span><\/p>\n Is this simply a rebrand, or are we changing the meaning of AI altogether?<\/span><\/p>\n And if the U.S. government starts saying SI instead of AI, could the rest of the world eventually follow?<\/span><\/p>\n This blog discusses why Trump changed the terminology, what \u201cSuper Intelligence\u201d means, and whether this rebrand could reshape how we talk about AI.<\/span><\/p>\n The term Artificial Intelligence has been around since 1956.<\/span><\/p>\n But for most people, AI did not become part of everyday life until much more recently. A major turning point came on November 30, 2022, when OpenAI publicly launched ChatGPT. Suddenly, anyone could open a chat window and ask AI to explain a concept, write an email, brainstorm ideas, and summarize information in seconds.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, that feels almost basic.<\/span><\/p>\n Today, AI can conduct multi-step research across hundreds of sources, analyze files and data, create presentations and spreadsheets, write and debug code, and interact with websites and software on a user\u2019s behalf. The list of things it can\u2019t do seems to be getting shorter by the day. AI coding tools can even help non-developers create websites and apps, while autonomous agents are increasingly able to pursue goals and work across professions and applications with limited human involvement.<\/span><\/p>\n For many people, AI has gone from being a chatbot to something closer to a researcher, consultant, coder, designer, analyst, creative partner, and personal assistant rolled into one.<\/span><\/p>\n The shift is changing how people work and what they need to learn in order to succeed in increasingly AI-driven roles.<\/span><\/p>\n That rapid evolution of AI is central to Trump\u2019s argument for changing the name.<\/span><\/p>\n Trump has argued that the word \u201cartificial\u201d makes the technology sound fake, while \u201cSuper Intelligence\u201d better reflects how powerful it has become. On September 29, 2026, he signed an executive order directing executive departments and agencies to use \u201cSuper Intelligence\u201d and \u201cSI\u201d instead of \u201cArtificial Intelligence\u201d and \u201cAI\u201d in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents.<\/span><\/p>\n Trump changed the terminology primarily as a <\/span>rebranding<\/b> move. The specific wording also emerged through polls Trump conducted on Truth Social, his owned social network. He floated alternatives including \u201csuperior,\u201d \u201cextreme,\u201d and \u201csupreme\u201d intelligence; \u201csuper intelligence\u201d won the final poll against \u201csuperior intelligence\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n China is also part of the strategic context for the rebranding. Trump presented the rebranding alongside a push to maintain US technological leadership over China. At his September 22, 2026 UN speech, Trump linked the announcement to a geopolitical competition: \u201cWhoever wins AI\u2026 and now I say, whoever wins SI, whoever wins superintelligence, wins.\u201d In the same speech, he claimed the US was \u201cleading now over China by a lot\u201d and promised to preserve that advantage. China, for now, keeps the AI terminology.<\/span><\/p>\n However, <\/span>experts quoted by the BBC<\/span><\/a> called the rebranding misleading because it exaggerates current capabilities and uses a term researchers reserve for a substantially more advanced class of systems. Superintelligent AI has not been established as achieved, according to the reporting on the order.<\/span><\/p>\n Long before Trump proposed using \u201cSuper Intelligence\u201d as a replacement name for AI, superintelligence already had an established meaning in AI research and technology discussions. Artificial superintelligence, or ASI, generally refers to a <\/span>hypothetical AI system whose cognitive capabilities would substantially exceed those of humans<\/span><\/a> across virtually all domains.<\/span><\/p>\n It is distinct from artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which emphasizes broadly applicable intelligence rather than necessarily far-superhuman performance <\/span><\/p>\n Under the new U.S. government terminology, \u201cSuper Intelligence\u201d is being used as a replacement term for Artificial Intelligence itself, rather than as the name of a separate type of technology.<\/span><\/p>\n SI is an umbrella term for the technologies and systems that the federal government would previously have described as AI.<\/span><\/p>\n The White House is already using the term this way. In its announcement of America.gov, it said the platform uses \u201c<\/span>modern technology and Super Intelligence (SI)<\/span><\/a>\u201d to help people communicate with the government, receive answers, and access federal services.<\/span><\/p>\n The timing of the name change also comes as AI is increasingly reaching or exceeding human performance in specific areas. Stanford\u2019s AI Index reports that <\/span>leading AI systems are surpassing human-level performance on some benchmarks<\/span><\/a>, while another Stanford report found that <\/span>top AI agents outperformed human experts by around four times<\/span><\/a> on certain complex tasks when working within a two-hour time window.<\/span><\/p>\n If SI – formerly known as AI – is already capable of doing things that would have sounded extraordinary only a few years ago, what will it be capable of a few years from now? As technology takes on more tasks independently, the way people work, learn, make decisions, and create value will continue to change with it – making the skills we teach today more important to rethink than ever.<\/span><\/p>\n The challenge for education is preparing people for a world in which technology can take on more tasks, reshape job roles, and change what employers expect from their workforce.<\/span><\/p>\n Wawiwa is a global education provider that supports colleges, universities, and training centers across the U.S. and around the world with education solutions built for the SI \/ AI era.<\/span><\/p>\n Wawiwa dise\u00f1a programas teniendo en cuenta ambos aspectos de la ecuaci\u00f3n: lo que los estudiantes quieren aprender y lo que los empleadores necesitan que puedan hacer. A trav\u00e9s de su<\/span> Metodolog\u00eda JET Design<\/span><\/a>, En Wawiwa, se comienza con los requisitos laborales y se trabaja en sentido inverso para definir las tareas, habilidades, herramientas y experiencias de aprendizaje que deber\u00edan conformar el plan de estudios.<\/span><\/p>\n That approach matters even more as SI takes on work that was once performed entirely by people. Instead of preparing students only to complete traditional tasks, institutions need to prepare them to work in environments where some tasks are automated, others are SI-assisted, and new responsibilities emerge around judgment, verification, problem-solving, communication, and the effective use of intelligent tools.<\/span><\/p>\nIs AI Indeed Super Intelligence?<\/b><\/h2>\n
Why Did Trump Change the Term AI to Super Intelligence?<\/b><\/h2>\n
What Does \u201cSuper Intelligence\u201d Actually Mean?<\/b><\/h2>\n
How Wawiwa Helps Colleges Prepare Students for the AI – or SI – Era<\/b><\/h2>\n