The SI Style Guide

On September 29, 2026, Executive Order 14434 told every U.S. federal executive agency to use "Super Intelligence" and "SI" in place of "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI". This guide turns that one-line rule into practical style decisions. You can apply them automatically with our AI → SI Converter.

Who has to follow it?

Only federal executive branch agencies. They must follow it in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents and other non-statutory documents. The order does not bind Congress, the courts, state governments, businesses, the press or anyone else.

Many others will still choose to follow it: federal contractors and grant applicants who want their proposals to match agency language, communications teams at companies that work with government, and journalists quoting agency documents.

The five core rules

1. Spell it "Super Intelligence". Use two words with both capitalized, exactly as the order does. The abbreviation is "SI".
2. Introduce the abbreviation once. On first mention write "Super Intelligence (SI)", then use "SI".
3. "An SI", but "a Super Intelligence". The abbreviation is read "ess-eye" and takes "an". The spelled-out form starts with a consonant sound and takes "a".
4. Swap compounds consistently. "AI-powered" becomes "SI-powered", "AI model" becomes "SI model", and "AIs" becomes "SIs".
5. Never change names, titles, citations or quotes. "OpenAI", the "EU AI Act" and a CEO's quoted words stay exactly as they are.

Terms that change

These follow mechanically from the order. None of them is an official federal definition yet: the administration owes a proposed legal definition by November 28, 2026.

AI-era term	SI-era term	Note
artificial intelligence (AI)	Super Intelligence (SI)	The core substitution in Sec. 1 and Sec. 2 of the order.
an AI system	an SI system	"SI" is read letter by letter ("ess-eye"), so it takes "an".
an artificial intelligence system	a Super Intelligence system	"Super" starts with a consonant sound, so it takes "a".
AI model	SI model
generative AI / GenAI	generative SI / GenSI
AI agent / agentic AI	SI agent / agentic SI
AI-powered, AI-enabled	SI-powered, SI-enabled
AI safety	SI safety
AI governance	SI governance
AI literacy	SI literacy
responsible AI	responsible SI
AI chip, AI accelerator	SI chip, SI accelerator
AI policy	SI policy
AIs (plural)	SIs

What stays the same

Term	Rule	Why
Artificial general intelligence (AGI)	Unchanged	A distinct concept, not the term the order replaces.
Artificial superintelligence (ASI), superintelligence	Unchanged	Means beyond-human intelligence, not today's technology. See SI vs superintelligence.
OpenAI, xAI, Mistral AI, Meta AI…	Unchanged	Company and product names are proper nouns.
EU AI Act, National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act	Unchanged	Titles of laws keep their enacted names; the order cannot rename statutes.
Previously issued regulations, contracts, grants	Unchanged	Sec. 2(b): no alteration of historical documents is required.
Direct quotations	Unchanged	Never alter what someone actually said or wrote.

Don't confuse SI with superintelligence

Before 2026, "superintelligence" meant a hypothetical system that far surpasses human intelligence in almost every area, which researchers abbreviate as ASI. The order's "Super Intelligence" means something else: it legally covers the same technologies as the existing statutory definition of artificial intelligence (15 U.S.C. § 9401(3)), meaning today's chatbots, image generators and recommendation systems.

When you mean the hypothetical future system, write "artificial superintelligence (ASI)" and say so explicitly. Our explainer SI vs superintelligence covers the difference in detail.

Writing for mixed audiences

Most readers still say "AI". For general audiences, a bridging first reference avoids confusion: "Super Intelligence (SI, formerly known as AI)" or "SI, the new federal term for artificial intelligence". After that, use "SI" alone. In headlines and search snippets, it often helps to include both terms once.