Beyond Imitation: The Case for Calling AI “Super Intelligence” (SI)

Abstract

The language that is employed to discuss computing systems and their state of advancement influences both research agendas and policy and societal frameworks, as well as the perception of those systems. To reflect the rapid progress leading to capabilities that the U.S. government called "Super Intelligence" (SI) instead of "Artificial Intelligence" (AI), the U.S. government signed an executive order on 29 September 2026 that put a fresh spin on the term AI. On 29 September 2026, the U.S. government issued an executive order that reframed the term Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Super Intelligence (SI), which was an appropriate change with the recent advancements in capabilities. This article supports the conceptual validity of the terminological shift and recommends its internationalization. We believe that "artificial" and "synthetic" are origin-based terms and do not necessarily limit the possible uses of a system. “Super Intelligence”, by contrast, is a performance-based term which directly targets the metrics that are of major concern to scientists, regulators, investors and the public today. In this paper we recap the scope and limitations of the executive order, discuss the evolution of the executive order's naming, and offer six reasons to adopt it widely: accuracy, precision, communication, governance, safety, and coordination. A capability indexed working definition is proposed as is a roadmap for a gradual progression toward adoption, in response to the first objection, that the technical definition of superintelligence is too narrow for the order's applications. This paper is not empirical; it does not contain findings with regard to the effects on trust, investment and governance, but it provides hypotheses for further empirical research based on a conceptually oriented and policy analysis of a documentary examination of the order.