AI vs. SI: What the Rename Means for Your Company Name
On September 29, 2026, the White House told federal agencies to say “super intelligence” instead of “artificial intelligence.” Here is what that means for founders choosing a name, and what it doesn’t.
What happened
On September 22, 2026, speaking at the UN General Assembly, President Trump said the word “artificial” makes the technology sound fake. A week later he signed an executive order titled Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence. It directs federal departments and agencies to use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports and policy documents, to the extent the law allows.
The domain market moved first. Slovenia’s .si registry, whose country code happens to spell the new abbreviation, recorded 46,066 new registrations in September 2026, against 3,515 in the whole of August.
What changed, and what didn’t
- It binds federal agencies only. Companies, state governments, other countries and search engines are free to keep saying AI.
- The law still says “artificial intelligence.” The statutory definition in 15 U.S.C. § 9401(3) is unchanged, as are existing regulations, contracts and earlier presidential actions.
- Federal paperwork will shift. Agency websites, reports and correspondence now use the new term, so anyone who sells to government will see “SI” in practice.
For the foreseeable future, most companies will work with two vocabularies: “SI” in federal settings and “AI” almost everywhere else.
Should your company follow?
Rebranding an established product around a term that is a few weeks old is rarely worth it. Customers still search for “AI tools,” and that habit won’t change overnight. But naming decisions last for years, and three groups have a real reason to plan for SI now:
- Companies that sell to federal agencies, where “SI” is now the official word.
- Startups that haven’t launched yet, which can choose a name that works under either term from day one.
- Investors and venture studios that hold names for companies they plan to build.
Four naming moves that work under either term
- Pick a brand, not a description. A name like “SmartAI Analytics” is tied to one acronym. A coined name such as Veritan or Lumenar carries neither, so it survives whichever term wins.
- Keep AI wording where buyers search. Product pages, ads and app store listings should still say AI, because that is what people type.
- Secure the matching .si domain. If you own yourname.ai, registering yourname.si costs little and keeps copycats off it. The .si registry itself has advised trademark owners to register early.
- Point the extras at one main site. Run the company on one primary domain and send the others to it with permanent redirects, so search engines see a single address.
The scarce asset is the name, not the acronym
Whichever term wins, what stays scarce is a short, memorable name you can own on an extension that buyers already associate with intelligence technology. About 1.5 million .ai names are registered, and short, pronounceable ones now trade almost entirely on the aftermarket. The short .si names that read well in English were claimed within weeks of the announcement.