Trump Declares a “New Era of Superintelligence”—But What Does SI Mean?

The US president’s order uses “superintelligence” as a new name for artificial intelligence, but researchers generally use the term to describe hypothetical systems that surpass humans across virtually all cognitive tasks.

“Superintelligence” has arrived—at least according to the definition used in a US presidential order.

In a presidential order issued on September 29, US President Donald Trump declared that humanity is entering a “new era of superintelligence.” The order said that the term artificial intelligence is outdated because today’s frontier systems do more than mimic or automate discrete aspects of human intelligence. It also directed federal agencies to use “superintelligence” and “SI” instead of “artificial intelligence” and “AI.”

Will AI really kill us all? The science behind the hype

Trump’s declaration has drawn both support and criticism. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk wrote on the social media platform X, “No more AI. SI. It’s better,” adding that his company SpaceXAI would change its name to SpaceXSI. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, however, continues to use the term AI in his posts.

What is superintelligence?

Trump’s order defines “superintelligence” as “the technologies and systems that fall within the term ‘artificial intelligence.’” Researchers, however, were using the term to describe hypothetical technologies with advanced capabilities long before the executive order.

The concept was popularized by philosopher of science Nick Bostrom’s 2014 book Superintelligence. Bostrom defined superintelligence as “any intellect that significantly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest.”

A 2025 petition signed by many AI researchers and others calling for a slowdown in the development of superintelligence similarly described it as a system that can “significantly outperform all humans at essentially all cognitive tasks.”

But the term is still not fully defined, says Melanie Mitchell, an AI researcher at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico. For example, what constitutes human-level intelligence remains unclear.

“They don’t have strict meanings; people can use these terms to mean whatever they want,” Mitchell says.

Why does Trump want to rename AI?

Changing names is not a new habit for Trump. In August, when the United States and Canada were at odds over tariffs, he ordered federal agencies to refer to Lake Ontario as Lake America. According to the order, the change reflected the lake’s importance to the United States.

Trump also explained the reasoning behind the change from AI to SI at the United Nations the previous month. He said the term “artificial intelligence” was “much more accurate” and “not fake” than the term “sounds fake.”

Too dangerous to publish: Is Mythos the beginning of the era of limited AI?

Darrell West, who studies AI policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., sees the renaming as an effort to rebrand the technology at a time when public opinion is turning against it.

A poll conducted in the United States the previous month found that about 8 in 10 respondents were concerned about the pace of AI development. Nearly 9 in 10 said they were more worried than excited about the possibility that AI might surpass human intelligence.

Trump has repeatedly dismissed concerns about AI. He has posted on social media that claims AI will take over the world, destroy humanity and cause other harms are “a hoax.” He has also criticized AI leaders who call for regulation.

“The hope is that the name change will improve public acceptance of the technology and move the AI revolution forward,” West says. “But I think that’s a fanciful idea.”

Asked about West’s claims, the White House responded to Nature by referring to Trump’s public statements regarding the need for a new term.