The US government has decided that artificial intelligence should be called "super intelligence" instead, at least inside the executive branch. A new order directs federal agencies to use the new term and to stop acknowledging the old one in official settings.
Major tech CEOs lined up to agree, according to a report from PC Gamer. Whether anyone outside Washington will actually adopt the phrase is a different question. The reporting also notes that the order misspelled "United States" as "Unites States" under the president's signature.
At a glance
- A US executive order renames "artificial intelligence" to "super intelligence" inside the federal government.
- The order instructs agencies to use "super intelligence" and "SI" and not acknowledge the old terms.
- A separate industry accord on super intelligence was signed by leaders of major US tech firms.
- Elon Musk publicly endorsed the rebranding on X, then went back to saying "AI" within hours.
- The accord leans heavily on industry self-policing with no mention of government oversight.
What the order actually does
The order, signed in late September, replaces two common phrases across federal usage. According to the text quoted in PC Gamer's coverage, the executive branch will use "Super Intelligence" and "SI" in place of "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI" wherever permitted by law, and will not acknowledge the old terms in applicable settings.
For most people outside the federal government, that changes very little. No consumer product is being renamed, no research paper needs to be rewritten, and no one's Steam library is going to relabel anything. The branding push mostly affects how the White House talks about the technology and how the press covers it.
The CEO response
The bigger story is who showed up. Tech executives from the companies that have driven GPU prices and PC build costs through the roof in recent years gathered at the White House to sign a separate accord on super intelligence.
According to PC Gamer, the signatories include the kinds of names who have made PC gaming painfully expensive. Huang of NVIDIA used the new phrase at least three times in his own X post. Pichai of Google followed on his own account. Zuckerberg posted on Facebook, naturally. Musk endorsed the change publicly and was back to "AI" on his platform less than eight hours later.
Our analysis
This is mostly theatre, but the kind of theatre that has real teeth downstream. The federal government does not get to dictate how the rest of the world talks about AI, so the renaming itself is a harmless branding exercise.
The accord is the part to actually worry about. PC Gamer's reading of the text is that the AI industry is being left to police itself. The document puts the duty on each participating company to build its technology safely and to sit down together periodically to hash out voluntary best practices. There is no language about outside enforcement or any role for regulators.
For gamers specifically, the practical risk is what happens when the companies selling you $1,500 GPUs also write the rules for the systems those GPUs train. Self-policing has a poor track record in industries this concentrated. Watch for whether any actual enforcement teeth emerge, or whether this becomes a press release cycle and nothing else.
The funniest wrinkle is the cultural one. "Super Intelligence" lines up uncomfortably well with "Super Earth," the fascist human homeworld in Helldivers 2. That is almost certainly a coincidence. It is also exactly the kind of joke that will not die once the meme accounts get hold of it.
Say you run a small studio
Imagine you are an indie developer shipping a game with on-device AI features in 2026. Voluntary standards sound great in a White House photo op. In practice, they mean your game now has to comply with whatever framework the major players draft behind closed doors. If you are building something serious, read those drafts the moment they leak, because the biggest platform holders will treat them as de facto requirements regardless of what the law says.
What to watch next
Watch for whether the term "super intelligence" sticks in mainstream press or fades within a quarter. Watch for any follow-up order that tries to enforce the language outside the federal government. Most importantly, watch the accord's working group meetings. Whatever standards come out of those rooms will quietly shape what your PC can and cannot do.
Key takeaways
- The order changes how Washington talks about AI, not how anyone else does.
- Major tech CEOs publicly adopted the new phrasing, at least for a day.
- The real concern is the self-policing industry accord, not the vocabulary change.
Frequently asked questions
What did the executive order actually change?
It directs the executive branch to use "super intelligence" instead of "artificial intelligence" in federal usage and to stop acknowledging the old terms in applicable settings.
Which tech leaders signed the related accord?
According to PC Gamer, signatories include Huang of NVIDIA, Pichai of Google, Zuckerberg of Meta and others.
Does this rename AI for ordinary people?
No. The order applies to the federal executive branch and does not require consumers, researchers or game developers to change their vocabulary.
Is there any government oversight in the accord?
PC Gamer reports that the accord text makes no mention of regulatory oversight or government involvement, and instead emphasizes company responsibility and voluntary best practices.
Does this affect gaming or GPUs?
Not directly. The reporting notes the accord could indirectly shape how AI used in games and on PCs is governed if voluntary standards become industry defaults.
Source: pcgamer.com