In the current news story, “SI” means super intelligence, not synthetic intelligence. The term is part of a reported push for U.S. government communications to replace “artificial intelligence” with “super intelligence”—but that wording change does not show that AI has been renamed across government, industry or public use, or that today’s systems have become superintelligent.
What does “SI” mean in the current renaming story?
It means super intelligence. President Donald Trump advocated the term at the United Nations General Assembly, arguing that “artificial” makes intelligence sound fake. In AP’s report of his September 22, 2026 remarks, Trump said: “The use of the word artificial makes intelligence fake, it makes it sound fake and it is not fake. It’s actually amazing.” That is his rationale for changing the label, not a technical definition of what current AI systems can do. AP reported the remarks and the resulting terminology push.
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“Synthetic intelligence” is a different proposed alternative that appears in earlier naming discussions. It is not what SI means in this current story.
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How far has the government terminology change gone?
AP reported a specific instruction to employees of the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs. An email from bureau deputy assistant secretary Michael Drager said: “Following the president’s remarks at the GA today, please change all references of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ to ‘Super Intelligence’ in our documents and positions.” AP said it was not immediately clear whether other bureaus had received or would receive similar instructions.
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That is evidence of a bureau-level directive and a broader public push, not proof of a government-wide order with established reach. Nor does it establish that companies or the public have adopted “SI” as their standard term. Axios reported that executives from Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, xAI and Nvidia signed a White House Accord on Super Intelligence; it also reported that some company representatives expected the wording to remain limited to meetings with the president or federal work. That does not demonstrate universal adoption in company communications. Axios’s account describes the accord and those expectations.
Does “super intelligence” describe current AI more accurately?
Not necessarily. “Artificial intelligence” is the broad, established name for a field that includes many kinds of systems and capabilities. “Super intelligence,” by contrast, sounds like a particular, exceptional level of capability. Replacing one term with the other can therefore imply more than a preference about wording: it can suggest that the technology has crossed a threshold.
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The Week’s coverage relays experts’ concern that “super intelligence” may imply capacities current systems do not have. That is a meaningful distinction, even though the coverage is a synthesis of specialist responses rather than a formal technical consensus statement. The Week explains the concern about the term’s capability implications.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →A name can shape expectations, but it cannot establish a system’s abilities. To assess a particular product or research result, look at what it can reliably do, under what conditions, and with what limitations—not simply whether someone calls it AI or SI.
Why did “artificial intelligence” become the established name?
The name has a long history in the field. Stanford’s One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence says the phrase first appeared in a 1955 research proposal by John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester and Claude Shannon. The 1956 Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence helped establish a shared identity for the field; it explored how machines might simulate aspects of intelligence. Stanford also notes that important technical ideas existed before that workshop, so Dartmouth did not originate every idea later gathered under AI. The Stanford AI100 report provides this history.
Do people prefer the proposed label?
Not in one poll reported during the initial push. Axios reported that a YouGov poll conducted the week of October 1, 2026 found 53% preferred “artificial intelligence,” compared with 9% who preferred “super intelligence.” Axios’s article did not give the sample size or full methodology, so those figures should be treated as a reported snapshot of preference, not a definitive measure of public opinion. Axios reported the poll results.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to judge a proposed AI name change
The practical question is not only whether a new label sounds better. Consider what it accurately describes, what it implies, who is adopting it and whether the intended audience understands it.
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| Question | What it reveals |
|---|---|
| Does the term describe a broad field or a specific capability level? | “Artificial intelligence” functions as the broad field label; “super intelligence” implies a stronger capability claim. |
| Could the wording overstate what current systems can do? | “Super” may lead readers to infer capacities that have not been established for current systems. |
| Who is actually using the term? | A government office can set wording for its own documents without establishing a universal standard. |
| Does the intended audience recognize and prefer it? | The Axios-reported YouGov poll found a preference for “artificial intelligence” in that week’s survey, though the article did not include full methodology. |
These are useful checks for any terminology proposal, not the results of a controlled experiment comparing names.
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