The men selling us the future of human intelligence have reached an awkward stage in their own development: checking which words will please Donald Trump. They can build systems that write code, analyze mountains of data, and answer complicated questions. Apparently, telling the president that changing a letter does not count as inventing something requires a capability still under development.
Key Takeaways
- Trump's September 29 order tells executive agencies to replace AI terminology with "Super Intelligence" and "SI." Its current definition points to the existing statutory definition of AI. [1]
- Musk's AI operation now uses SpaceXSI, Salesforce's Benioff announced SIForce, and NVIDIA's Huang and Microsoft's Nadella have publicly used the new wording. [2][5][6][7]
- SpaceXSI still advertises AI models. NASA and the State Department show how the federal rebrand is spreading into websites and administrative work. [3][8][9]
The extra credit is voluntary
The executive order applies to the federal executive branch. It does not require these private companies to rename their products. [1] The billionaires are doing the extra homework themselves, which is touching. Somewhere, a teacher who spent thirty years trying to get homework handed in is wondering whether she should have threatened a tariff.
Marc Benioff announced on October 9 that Salesforce's AIForce would become SIForce. Jensen Huang's October 8 NVIDIA statement used the term in announcing a $1 billion science commitment. Satya Nadella used it in his October 10 post about safeguards. [5][6][7]
These are people who can explain computing infrastructure to investors, negotiate enormous contracts, and manage organizations full of scientists. Presented with a presidential vocabulary preference, they appear to have formed a study group.
Their machines can process competing instructions. Their public relations departments seem to have selected the most important one.
Elon's website has failed the loyalty test
Elon Musk announced the SpaceXAI-to-SpaceXSI change on October 4. The new brand is now visible on the company's website, where the homepage still prominently advertises "Frontier AI models." [2][3]
That is a difficult opening for the revolution. Elon has abolished AI everywhere except the places where he explains what he sells.
The current terms introduce customers to SpaceXSI, name the legal counterparty as SpaceXAI LLC, and describe a company building artificial intelligence. [4] The branding department has marched into the glorious future. The lawyers are still standing beside the old filing cabinet, holding the keys.
This is what makes Elon such an exciting innovator. Other companies take years to develop a new generation of technology. His can acquire an entirely new level of intelligence while retaining the old name in the paperwork and the old description on the homepage. The breakthrough appears to be the ability to occupy two eras simultaneously, depending on which link you click.
Perhaps the next update will introduce a revolutionary feature that allows a company's announcement to communicate with its own website. There may be significant enterprise demand.
NASA discovers that the future already happened
NASA's public site now has pages labeled "What is SI?", "SI Ethics," and "SI Inventory." It explains that the terminology is being updated under Trump's order, and says NASA researchers have used super intelligence for decades. [8]
Congratulations to everyone involved in a technological breakthrough so advanced it was achieved retroactively with Find and Replace. The future has arrived, and apparently it has been here for years.
NASA can send robots to Mars. Keeping a noun intact through an encounter with the White House has proved more challenging.
There is an appealing efficiency to this approach. Scientific progress normally involves experiments, setbacks, peer review, and people arguing over the results. A vocabulary upgrade can be completed before lunch, with the previous decades promoted along with it. We await the announcement that the office stapler has always been a precision materials integration platform.
Finally, more paperwork about the thing that reduces paperwork
An October 20 report described a State Department cable directing the new terminology into emails, remarks, websites, official titles, and program names, with legal exceptions. [9]
Imagine the satisfaction of being a diplomat with a difficult international assignment and discovering that headquarters has identified the urgent problem: the folder is spelled wrong.
Somebody with a real job now has to revise the materials, check the exceptions, update the terminology, and make sure the next person uses it correctly. The technology that was going to spare us tedious administrative work has acquired a tedious administrative project of its own.
There will presumably be a meeting to establish whether the meeting about renaming the AI governance meeting has itself been renamed. Everyone will receive an invitation. Someone will reply all. By the end, a machine will be asked to summarize why six human beings spent an hour discussing the letter S.
We have already documented the wider enthusiasm for presidential naming improvements. This one has the special advantage of creating work in every office that was promised less of it.
The world negotiates a third adjective
Washington also pushed IMF partners to adopt "super intelligence." The committee chair's October 17 statement ultimately used "advanced intelligence technologies." [10]
The negotiations have delivered an international compromise adjective, which must be a proud moment for everyone with a doctorate in economics. Somewhere, a translator deserves danger pay.
Try explaining this to someone who thinks diplomacy is about difficult negotiations over war, trade, or debt. Those subjects can be demanding, but have they considered the challenges of preventing a powerful man from becoming upset by a familiar abbreviation?
The computer does not become more capable because the adjective has cleared the negotiating room. The politician does, however, get another opportunity to admire the wording. That distinction may be the most important safety lesson in the entire exercise.
Intelligence is optional. Enthusiasm is mandatory.
Using the word superintelligence does not, by itself, prove somebody has obeyed Donald. It is an existing technical concept. Here, the specific rebranding announcements and the government's written instructions give us something more concrete to examine.
And what a demonstration of leadership they provide. These executives want to be trusted with systems that might reshape how we work, learn, and make decisions. Several have decided that their contribution to public understanding should include making the president's favorite adjective sound like a technical upgrade.
We are told the machines need safeguards against manipulation. An excellent idea. Perhaps the first demonstration could be conducted in the executive suite.
The computers are being trained to think for themselves. Somebody should try it on management.
Questions worth asking
Has Elon renamed all of SpaceX?
The documented change concerns its AI operation's public branding, SpaceXSI. The current consumer terms still identify the legal counterparty as SpaceXAI LLC. That does not establish a legal rename of the entire SpaceX parent company. [2][4]
Does calling today's AI "SI" prove it has become superintelligent?
No. A terminology change demonstrates no new technical capability. The executive order currently defines SI by reference to the existing statutory AI definition. [1]
Are private companies required to use Trump's terminology?
The cited order directs executive departments and agencies. It does not impose that renaming requirement on the private companies discussed here. [1]
Did the classroom scene or its dialogue really happen?
No. The cartoon's classroom, expressions, and dialogue are invented satire. The article identifies the separate, documented statements and branding changes.
Receipts
- White House: September 29 executive order and its definition of SI.
- Reuters, October 4: Musk says SpaceXAI will become SpaceXSI.
- SpaceXSI's current homepage, checked October 21, 2026.
- SpaceXSI consumer terms: legal counterparty and description of the company, last updated October 12, 2026.
- The Next Web, October 10: Benioff's SIForce announcement.
- NVIDIA's October 8 announcement and attributed Huang statement.
- The Verge, October 10: Nadella's public post and terminology.
- NASA's current Super Intelligence website, checked October 21, 2026.
- Nextgov/FCW, October 20: State Department terminology instructions.
- Reuters, October 17: IMF committee statement uses a different expression.
Political satire and opinion. Reporting checked October 21, 2026. Imagined situations and cartoon dialogue are fictional.
