SI vs Superintelligence: Why “Super Intelligence” Isn't ASI

Two terms that sound almost identical now mean very different things:

• Super Intelligence (SI), two words, is the U.S. government’s official name since September 2026 for all artificial intelligence, including the spell-checker on your phone.
• Superintelligence (ASI), one word, is a research term for a hypothetical intelligence far beyond any human’s. It does not exist yet.

Mixing them up leads to real misunderstandings in news, policy and everyday conversation. Here’s how to keep them apart.

What researchers mean by superintelligence

The idea is older than the modern computer industry. In 1965 the statistician I. J. Good described an “ultraintelligent machine” that could surpass “all the intellectual activities of any man however clever”. Because designing machines is itself an intellectual activity, he argued, such a machine could design even better machines: an intelligence explosion.

Philosopher Nick Bostrom’s 2014 book Superintelligence gave the standard modern definition: “any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest.” Researchers usually abbreviate it ASI, for artificial superintelligence, and treat it as a step beyond artificial general intelligence (AGI), which only matches humans.

What the executive order means by Super Intelligence

Executive Order 14434 uses “Super Intelligence” as a direct replacement for “Artificial Intelligence”. Section 3 defines it as the technologies covered by the existing legal definition of AI: any “machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations or decisions.” That is a very low bar: it includes recommendation algorithms, fraud filters and chatbots alike.

The order’s preamble does say that today’s systems “increasingly represent not merely artificial intelligence, but a new era of Super Intelligence.” But legally, nothing has to be smarter than a human to count as SI.

Side by side

	Super Intelligence (SI)	Superintelligence (ASI)
Spelling	Two words, capitalized; “SI”	One word; usually “ASI”
Origin	Executive Order 14434, 2026	I. J. Good (1965), Nick Bostrom (2014)
Meaning	Any AI system, as legally defined	Intelligence far beyond humans in nearly every domain
Exists today?	Yes, everywhere	No
Example	A chatbot, a spam filter, a self-driving car	None yet; hypothetical
Typical context	Government, policy, compliance	Research, forecasting, safety and risk debates

Why the overlap causes real confusion

The clash isn’t just academic. In the same weeks the order was signed:

• Companies are openly racing to build superintelligence. Meta has Meta Superintelligence Labs, Ilya Sutskever runs Safe Superintelligence Inc., and Microsoft has a superintelligence team under Microsoft AI. When they say superintelligence, they mean ASI, not the order’s SI.
• Lawmakers proposed banning it. On September 23, 2026, six days before the order, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar unveiled a bill to ban artificial superintelligence and create a federal Department of AI. A loose reading of “ban super intelligence” could sound like a ban on all AI. The bill targets only systems exceeding human cognitive ability.
• Scientists asked for a prohibition. The Future of Life Institute’s October 2025 Statement on Superintelligence, signed by AI pioneers including Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, calls for a prohibition on developing superintelligence until there is “broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and strong public buy-in.”

When a headline says “superintelligence”, it’s worth checking which meaning the writer intends.

How to tell which one someone means

1. Spelling: “Super Intelligence” (two words) or “SI” in a policy context means today’s AI. “Superintelligence” (one word) or “ASI” usually means the hypothetical system.
2. Tense: if it’s described as something that exists and is used today, it’s SI. If it’s something that might arrive, it’s ASI.
3. Stakes: talk of systems “smarter than all humans”, “loss of control” or “existential risk” is about superintelligence.
4. When in doubt, ask or write the full term: “artificial superintelligence”.

Does superintelligence exist? When might it arrive?

Not yet. Forecasts range from “within a few years” (some lab leaders) to “decades, if ever” (many skeptics). We compare the most cited predictions in When will superintelligence arrive?