Executive Order 14434 and Super Intelligence (SI): what it means for your organization
Executive Order 14434 was signed on September 29, 2026 and published in the Federal Register on October 2, 2026. It tells federal executive agencies to replace the name artificial intelligence with a new name in official non-statutory communications. The order does not rewrite the statute, and it does not by itself bind private organizations.
This note is general information about a public order. It is not legal advice, and it is not the engagement. Every claim below is taken from the order as published by the Government Publishing Office and the White House. Primary sources are linked at the end. We do not rely on secondary commentary.
What the order is
Executive Order 14434 is titled Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence. It is an order of September 29, 2026, signed at the White House that day. It was published in the Federal Register on Friday, October 2, 2026, Volume 91, Number 190, pages 63129 to 63130, as document 2026-20321. The Federal Register notes that it was filed on October 1, 2026.
The authority line is the standard one: the President acts by the authority vested in him by the Constitution and the laws of the United States. The order has four sections. Purpose. Implementation. Definition. General provisions. It is two pages. It is not a statute, and section 4 says it is not intended to create a right or benefit enforceable at law or in equity against the United States or its officers.
What it tells agencies to say
Section 1 states a policy. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the executive branch shall use a new pair of terms in place of artificial intelligence and AI, and will not acknowledge the usage of artificial intelligence and AI in any applicable setting. Section 2(a) turns that policy into an instruction. Executive departments and agencies shall use the new terms in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents within the executive branch, again to the maximum extent permitted by law.
The order writes that name as Super Intelligence (SI). We use one word, superintelligence, for the capability we advise on. The federal spelling belongs to the order. The rest of this note describes the instruction without treating that style rule as our own.
Section 1 explains why the administration wants the rename. It says today's frontier systems do more than imitate or automate discrete aspects of human intelligence, and that as those capabilities improve they represent what the order calls a new era. That is the order's purpose language. It is not a finding we are asking you to adopt. Our own view, stated on the rest of this site, is narrower and operational: systems that match or exceed human expertise across many tasks are already in organizations, and those organizations need an owner, a limit, and a record.
What it does not change
Section 2(b) is explicit. Nothing in the implementation section requires the alteration of previously issued regulations, presidential actions, contracts, grants, or other historical documents. A rename of future non-statutory writing is not an order to reopen the archive or to amend a signed agreement.
Section 4 limits how far the order reaches even inside government. It does not impair authority granted by law to an agency or its head. It does not impair the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget on budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals. It is to be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations. And, as noted, it creates no private right to sue.
The instruction is aimed at executive departments and agencies, and at non-statutory documents within the executive branch. The order does not say that state or local governments must adopt the usage. It does not say that private companies, public companies, or non-profits must rename their own documents. Copying the federal style into a contract, a policy, or a board paper, because it sounds current, is a choice. It is not what section 2 requires of those organizations.
The definition it uses today
Section 3(a) is the part that keeps the rename from being a new legal category. For purposes of the order, and except where otherwise provided by law, the new terms mean the technologies and systems encompassed by artificial intelligence as defined in section 9401(3) of title 15 of the United States Code. That definition governs implementation of the order unless and until it is superseded by a later presidential action consistent with applicable law, or by an Act of Congress.
So the name changes, for the documents section 2 covers, while the legal bucket stays the existing statutory definition. The order's purpose section talks about capabilities beyond what the old name envisioned. Section 3 says that, for implementation, the old statutory boundary still governs. Both sentences are in the order. Reading only the purpose section overstates what agencies have been told to treat as a new thing.
What was assigned for the next 60 days
Section 3(b) gives the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology 60 days from the date of the order to submit proposed legislative language to the President. The proposal is to establish a federal definition of the new terms that reflects the capabilities described in section 1. The Assistant is to consult other agency heads as the Assistant deems appropriate.
The proposal must include three things. An assessment of whether, and to what extent, the new definition should modify, expand, or supersede the existing statutory definition of artificial intelligence. Any proposed conforming amendments to existing statutory references. And recommendations for any additional presidential or executive action needed to implement the proposed definition throughout the executive branch.
The date of the order is September 29, 2026. This note was written on October 30, 2026, inside that 60-day window. We do not describe a legislative proposal we have not read, and we do not claim one has or has not been sent. Until Congress acts, or a later presidential action consistent with law supersedes section 3(a), the implementation definition remains the statutory one the order points to. Publication costs of the order are borne by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, under section 4(d).
What this means if you are not a federal agency
If you lead a private company, a public company, or a non-profit, the order does not rename your obligations. It is a signal that federal non-statutory writing will use different words for the same statutory category, and that a later proposal may ask Congress to change the definition. Contracts you already signed are in the class of documents section 2(b) does not require anyone to alter. Your own policies are yours to change or to leave.
If you are inside an executive department or agency, or you write documents those agencies will publish, section 2 is the instruction to read with counsel: non-statutory communications, to the maximum extent permitted by law, using the terms the order adopts. Regulations, prior presidential actions, contracts, grants, and other historical documents are carved out of any duty to alter them. The statutory definition still governs implementation until it is superseded in the way section 3 describes.
In either case the operational work is unchanged by the spelling. Know where these systems touch decisions, data, and obligations. Know who holds each decision. Know what you would show if asked how control was kept. That is an AI and superintelligence audit, and where oversight is the gap, AI governance consulting. The federal rename does not do that work for you, and adopting the federal spelling does not finish it.
Primary sources
The White House PDF and the Federal Register PDF are the same file. We checked that their contents match byte for byte. The HTML text on govinfo is the text this note follows.
Related reading
The order does not do the operational work
If you need a written position on the uses you already have, tell us the decision that is moving. We read it first.
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