§ Claim under review · Policy
"President Trump signed an executive order directing the US executive branch to stop using the term 'artificial intelligence' and instead refer to it as 'Super Intelligence' in official policy websites, documents, and press releases."
Verdict
Mostly accurate
Confidence
HighSummary
This one is essentially real. President Trump signed Executive Order 14434 on September 29, 2026, and it was published in the Federal Register on October 2. The order tells executive branch departments and agencies to use "Super Intelligence" and "SI" instead of "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI" in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports and policy documents, and says the branch will not acknowledge the old terms. The quote about "super" being the best and simplest word is genuine, made at the launch of the America.gov website that same morning. Two pieces of context the post leaves out matter, though. The order applies only where the law permits and only to non-statutory material, and it does not require changing existing regulations, contracts, grants or past documents. It also defines "Super Intelligence" as meaning exactly the same technologies that federal law already calls artificial intelligence, so this is a change of label rather than a change of policy, and it is not the same thing as the technical idea of superintelligence used by AI researchers. One small detail in the caption, that Trump said Xi Jinping "loves" the new term, could not be confirmed in available transcripts, though Xi's White House state visit the previous week did happen.
The readings
key figures from the evidenceExecutive Order number renaming AI to Super Intelligence
Federal Register citation for the order
deadline to submit proposed legislative language for SI definition
Why this verdict
Evidence
The executive order exists and says substantially what the claim says it says. The Federal Register published "Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence" as Executive Order 14434 of September 29, 2026, document 2026-20321, at 91 FR 63129 .
The operative text states: "It is therefore the policy of my Administration that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the executive branch shall use the terms 'Super Intelligence' and 'SI' 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) provides: "To the maximum extent permitted by law, executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall use 'Super Intelligence' and 'SI' in place of 'Artificial Intelligence' and 'AI' in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents within the executive branch."
Two limiting provisions follow. Section 2(b) states that nothing in the section requires the alteration of previously issued regulations, Presidential actions, contracts, grants, or other historical documents.
Section 3(a) provides that for purposes of the order, and except where otherwise provided by law, "Super Intelligence" and "SI" mean the technologies and systems encompassed by the term "artificial intelligence" as defined in section 9401(3) of title 15, United States Code, and that this definition governs implementation unless and until changed.
The White House confirms the same scope on its own channel: the fact sheet states that Trump signed an Executive Order to replace the term "Artificial Intelligence" with "Super Intelligence" in the executive branch, and that the Order directs all departments and agencies to use the terms in official correspondence, public communications, policy documents, and non-statutory documents.
The order also starts a legislative process. Within 60 days, the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, in consultation with other agency heads as appropriate, must submit to the President proposed legislative language to establish a Federal definition of "Super Intelligence" and "SI."
Independent legal analysis describes the order as directing prospective use of the new term across executive branch official communications and other non-statutory materials, and as initiating a review of the current statutory definition of AI.
On the quoted remarks and the event: Forbes reports that earlier that Tuesday, speaking at the launch of the America.gov website, Trump previewed the order, saying the technology is extreme, superior and supreme intelligence, "But the word super is the best word of all and its the simplest, so we're going to be naming it SI, Super Intelligence."
The White House gallery records that Trump delivered remarks on America.gov, described as an AI-powered website for navigating federal government information and services, at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on Tuesday, September 29, 2026.
On the Xi reference in the caption: Xi Jinping and Peng Liyuan were welcomed to the White House on Thursday, September 24, 2026, for a state visit , which ran September 23 to 25, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
A separate instrument was signed the same day and should not be confused with the order. The "White House Accord on Super Intelligence," described as a "Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities," was signed by Trump and leaders of major technology companies, and calls on companies developing frontier technology to establish multiple layers of controls.
Findings
✓ What's accurate 8
- An executive order with this directive exists. It is EO 14434, signed September 29, 2026, and published in the Federal Register on October 2, 2026.
- The order does direct executive branch departments and agencies to use "Super Intelligence" and "SI" in place of "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI."
- The three categories named in the claim are all within the order's stated scope. Section 2(a) covers websites and policy documents explicitly, and press releases fall within "public communications."
- The order goes further than substitution and states that the executive branch "will not acknowledge the usage of" the old terms in any applicable setting, so the claim's "stop using" framing tracks the text rather than overstating it.
- The quote in the post image is substantially accurate. Trump said at the America.gov launch that "super" is the best and simplest word. The post's wording is a lightly compressed version of a longer passage, not an invented line.
- The event context is accurate. The remarks were made at the launch of America.gov, a new federal website, in Washington, D.C., on September 29, 2026.
- The caption's statement that Xi Jinping visited the White House the previous week is accurate. The state visit took place September 23 to 25, 2026, eight days before the order was signed.
- The reporting is not single-sourced. The claim is independently verifiable against the primary instrument, and official White House channels corroborate it.
≈ What's misleading 4
- The claim states flatly that the order directs the executive branch to stop using "artificial intelligence." The order twice qualifies the directive with "to the maximum extent permitted by law," and Section 2(a) limits it to non-statutory documents. Where a statute requires the term "artificial intelligence," the statute controls. The gap is real but narrow, because the claim already scopes itself to websites, documents and press releases, which is roughly the territory the order actually reaches.
- Neither the claim nor the caption notes Section 2(b), which means existing regulations, prior presidential actions, contracts, grants and historical documents are not required to be changed. A reader could infer a government-wide find-and-replace covering past material, which the order expressly does not require.
- Omitted qualifier, affecting what the rename means: Section 3(a) defines "Super Intelligence" as exactly the technologies already covered by the statutory definition of artificial intelligence at 15 U.S.C. 9401(3). The subject matter being governed is unchanged. A reader encountering only the headline could reasonably assume the government had adopted the technical sense of "superintelligence," meaning systems exceeding human capability across the board. The order does not do that, and the term as used in the order and the term as used in AI research do not mean the same thing.
- Exaggeration, in the caption rather than the claim: "The US executive branch is no longer acknowledging the existence of 'artificial intelligence'" converts the order's non-acknowledgment of the two terms into non-acknowledgment of the technology itself. The order's own definition section shows the technology is still recognized, under a different label.
? What's uncertain 4
- Whether Trump said at the event that Xi Jinping "loves" the new term, as the caption reports. Searches surfaced several transcriptions of the America.gov remarks, none of which included that line. The underlying Xi visit is confirmed, but this specific attribution within the quotation was not corroborated.
- The exact fidelity of the remaining quoted sentences in the caption, including the comparison of "artificial" to "fake news." Published transcripts of the same remarks vary in wording and none matched the caption verbatim.
- How far compliance has actually gone. The order sets the policy, but no evidence was found as to how many agency websites or press releases had been changed by the as-of date. The directive is verified; implementation is not.
- Whether the 60-day legislative proposal will produce a distinct statutory definition of "Super Intelligence." That deadline had not arrived as of the as-of date.
Sources
8 of 9 linked to recordsExecutive Order 14434 of September 29, 2026, "Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence," published in the Federal Register 10/02/2026, document 2026-20321, 91 FR 63129
White House Fact Sheet, "President Donald J. Trump Inaugurates The Era of Super Intelligence," September 29, 2026
White House photo gallery, "America.gov Launch Event
Wiley law firm client alert, October 2, 2026, identifying the instrument as EO 14434
Forbes, "Trump Signs Executive Order Renaming AI To 'Super Intelligence'," Sept 30, 2026, containing a fuller transcript of the America.gov remarks
CNBC, Sept 29, 2026
Freshfields client alert, Oct 1, 2026
IAPP news analysis, Sept 30, 2026
Washington Times and Wikipedia records of the Xi Jinping state visit, Sept 23 to 25, 2026