FACT — What does Executive Order 14434 do?
Executive Order 14434, issued on 29 September 2026, directs US executive departments and agencies to use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” instead of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in official communications and other non-statutory documents, to the maximum extent permitted by law. It does not require changes to previously issued regulations, Presidential actions, contracts, grants or historical documents. For this order, SI uses the existing statutory AI definition in 15 U.S.C. § 9401(3). The President’s science and technology adviser must propose legislative language within 60 days; that proposal does not itself amend the statute. This is an executive-branch terminology instruction, not a new general private-sector AI regulatory regime or evidence that technical superintelligence has been achieved.
Instrument and legal status
Jurisdiction: United States
Issuer: White House
Publication / adoption date: 2026-09-29
Status: Executive order — executive-branch direction within lawful authority
Effective / applicability date: 2026-09-29
Reviewed: 2026-10-03
INTERPRETATION — Terminology and legal limits
This development should be read within the existing United States governance architecture. Its legal force is executive order — executive-branch direction within lawful authority; the Observatory does not infer broader obligations from its title.
IMPLICATION — What changes for federal documents?
Review executive-branch terminology in new federal documents without treating it as a generally binding private-sector AI regime.