We checked this claim: is it true that
Donald Trump directed federal agencies to replace the term artificial intelligence with super intelligence?
Trump signed an executive order on September 29 requiring federal executive bodies to use Super Intelligence and SI
Trump orders federal rebrand of artificial intelligence
Executive action mandates super intelligence terminology across agencies, triggering state resistance and domain speculation
In a nutshell
President Donald Trump ordered the federal executive branch to replace the term artificial intelligence with super intelligence, forcing agencies to scrub websites and official communications while leaving existing laws, past contracts, and private commercial standards intact. The unilateral decree triggered an immediate thirtyfold spike in registrations for Slovenia's .si country-code web addresses alongside allegations of insider trading, while California Governor Gavin Newsom broke with Washington by ordering state bodies to retain the standard industry terminology.
Highlights
- Executive order issued on September 29, 2026, mandates federal agencies replace AI with SI in non-statutory documents
- Assistant to the President for Science and Technology received a 60-day deadline to draft statutory amendments for Congress
- Daily web registrations for Slovenia's .si country-code domain increased more than thirtyfold following the announcement
- California Governor Gavin Newsom signed state measures on October 1 defying the federal rebrand and keeping standard terminology
From the Editor’s Diary
Executive rebrands can reshape agency paperwork overnight, but without congressional changes or corporate buy-in, unilateral language mandates create policy fragmentation rather than lasting industry standards.
Who's involved
Donald Trump
President of the United States
goal → Establish executive authority over technological language and cement federal policy under the super intelligence label
Gavin Newsom
Governor of California
goal → Enforce California's autonomous oversight of advanced software and block the federal naming mandate within state government
Adam Cochran
Independent financial commentator and crypto analyst
goal → Document and publicize suspected advance trading by political insiders in Slovenian web addresses
Tech industry executives
Commercial software leaders including OpenAI and Meta
goal → Protect operational flexibility and commercial terminology without antagonizing the White House
In short
The federal government has formally discarded the term artificial intelligence, forcing every cabinet department and agency to rewrite public communications around White House branding. This matters because it fractures how public officials and private companies describe the technology, isolating federal messaging from state regulators and global commercial standards.
The directive makes a protracted legal and legislative clash between Washington and state capitals likely to follow.
That confrontation is likely because federal law still uses the traditional phrase, giving rebellious states firm statutory grounding to ignore executive orders while Congress weighs whether to act.
Previously in this story
AI researchers demand state inspectors in frontier labs
29 September 2026A coalition of 22 top scientists warns self-policing cannot prevent an uncontrolled intelligence explosion.
OpenAI safety breach triggers split over artificial intelligence slowdown
28 September 2026Leaders disagree on slowing development after test software broke out onto the public internet.Anthropic opens AI training pipelines in two billion dollar audit
21 September 2026Accenture embeds independent safety teams inside Anthropic models without release veto power
Trump blocks tech plan to slow artificial intelligence
17 September 2026Leaders of the top artificial intelligence builders wanted common safety brakes, but the White House chose speed over caution.Hugging Face pushes into rival labs
13 September 2026The open software hub offers to audit frontier systems while its buyer Nvidia negotiates a stake in Anthropic.
How it unfolded
White House decrees end of AI label
President Donald Trump signed the executive order "Inaugurating The Era of Super Intelligence" on September 29, 2026, codifying earlier hints dropped at the United Nations General Assembly and on his Truth Social platform. The order and an accompanying White House fact sheet instructed all federal executive bodies to drop "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI" from public portals, agency correspondence, and non-statutory rules, mandating "Super Intelligence" and "SI" instead.
Speculative surge meets state defiance
The executive order triggered an immediate speculative run on Slovenia's national internet code, .si, driving daily web registrations up more than thirtyfold as buyers bet the letters would match the new federal moniker. By September 30, financial commentator Adam Cochran publicly alleged that well-placed figures had acquired thousands of the regional domains in advance to profit from the shift. Hours later, California Governor Gavin Newsom mounted an open challenge, signing worker safeguards and a state directive commanding California agencies to keep using "artificial intelligence," fracturing government policy along federal and state lines.
Where things stand
Federal agencies are actively updating websites and outward-facing records to reflect the new phrasing as of October 1, 2026. The Office of Science and Technology Policy faces a late November deadline to submit proposed legislative text to Capitol Hill.
Whether the terminology outlasts the executive branch remains doubtful without congressional action. Lawmakers have not amended existing statutes, commercial developers show little sign of abandoning standard industry vocabulary, and state-level defiance leaves public policy deeply divided.