President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14434 on September 29, directing executive branch agencies to use the term “Super Intelligence” (SI) instead of “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) in official correspondence, websites, reports and other non-legislative documents. The order does not require retroactive revision of already issued regulations and contracts, but it gives 60 days to produce a federal definition of “Super Intelligence” and to study how existing statutory references to AI might be replaced.
Elon Musk posted on X that SpaceX’s AI division will be renamed from SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI, aligning the company’s terminology with the language encouraged by the presidential order.
Why this could be more than a name change
The issue goes beyond terminology. In technical literature, “superintelligence” typically refers to a theoretical class of systems that substantially outperform human intelligence across a wide range of tasks. Current U.S. statutes, however, still treat existing technologies as AI. If the federal definition changes, that could alter which systems are subject to safety requirements, audits, compliance procedures and procurement rules.
Direct administrative cost estimates
Federal records for 2025 list 3,611 distinct AI use cases across 56 federal agencies, of which 445 were classed as high risk. Even modest documentation reviews could add up quickly:
- If each registered system’s documentation review takes 4 work hours at an average cost of $75 per hour, the total cost would be about $1.1 million (roughly $360 million HUF equivalent in the article’s illustrations).
- If each system requires 20 hours of legal, IT and procurement work at $150 per hour, the bill would approach $10.8 million (roughly $3.6 billion HUF equivalent).
These are illustrative calculations based on government statistics rather than official cost estimates; the key point is that a seemingly simple terminology change could generate substantial work across thousands of systems.
Bigger impact on procurement and contracts
Data cited from the Brookings Institution show $7.2 billion in tied AI contracts in the 2026 U.S. budget and a potential contract market of $91.8 billion. Even minor percentage increases in compliance or amendment costs would translate into large dollar amounts:
- 0.1% of the $7.2 billion contract stock equals $7.2 million.
- 0.5% would be $36 million, and 1% $72 million.
- On the $91.8 billion potential market, 0.1% alone would approach $92 million.
If SI triggers new documentation, contract amendments, audits or compliance procedures, costs could escalate rapidly.
International regulatory mismatch
The European Union’s AI Act, the OECD and most international standards continue to refer to artificial intelligence. If the United States legally adopts SI terminology and potentially a different substantive definition, the same system might be labeled “Super Intelligence” under a U.S. contract and an “AI system” under European compliance documentation. If the difference is only nominal, it mainly creates administrative duplication; if the definitions diverge substantively, it could lead to separate U.S. and European audits, product documentation and legal compliance processes.
Conclusion
The presidential order has already influenced corporate behavior, as illustrated by SpaceX’s renaming of its AI division. The forthcoming federal definition of SI and any legal rewrites will determine whether the change remains a rhetorical shift or becomes a source of significant administrative, legal and international cost and complexity.
