# What does Executive Order 14434, the Super Intelligence order, actually do?

Source: https://superintelligencelicensing.com/guides/eo-14434-super-intelligence-explained  
Publisher: ZSKFL Management  
Last updated: 2026-11-02. Not legal advice.

> EO 14434 (Sept 29, 2026) makes federal agencies write “Super Intelligence” for AI, keeps the statute’s definition, and seeks a federal definition by Nov 28.

## At a glance

- Executive Order 14434, “Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence,” was signed September 29, 2026 and published at 91 FR 63129 on October 2, 2026. It tells federal agencies to write “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in their own non-statutory documents.
- It defines the new terms by pointing at the existing statutory definition of artificial intelligence in 15 U.S.C. 9401(3). There is no capability line, no compute threshold, and no duty on anyone outside the executive branch.
- It gives the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology 60 days, until November 28, 2026, to propose legislative language for a federal definition. A proposal is not a law.
- As of November 2, 2026, we found three later Federal Register documents citing the order: a Treasury Department proposed rule on outbound investment (91 FR 67396, October 26, 2026), which uses “super intelligence (SI) system” as its defined term, and two final rules, from the Department of Health and Human Services (91 FR 67916, October 28, 2026) and the Department of Education (91 FR 68626, October 30, 2026). None of them takes its duties from the order.

## What does Executive Order 14434 do?

Executive Order 14434 changes vocabulary, not law. As of November 2, 2026, it does three things: it directs executive departments and agencies to use the terms “Super Intelligence” and “SI” instead of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in their own documents; it defines those new terms by reference to the definition of artificial intelligence already in federal statute; and it orders a proposal for a legislative definition within 60 days. It creates no license, no permit, no reporting duty, and no new agency.

The order is four sections long. The White House fact sheet released the same day describes it the same way: one term swapped for another inside the executive branch, and a request for a federal definition.

The title, and the purpose section under it, read as if the government had declared that superintelligence has arrived. The operative sections are narrower. The executive branch will call current technology “Super Intelligence,” and the term means what “artificial intelligence” already means in law.

## What does the order tell federal agencies to change?

Section 1 states the policy: “to the maximum extent permitted by law, the executive branch shall use the terms ‘Super Intelligence’ and ‘SI’ in place of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘AI’ and will not acknowledge the usage of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘AI’ in any applicable setting.”

Section 2(a) turns the policy into an instruction. Agencies are to use the new terms “in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents within the executive branch.” The list is the whole scope of the instruction. Every item on it is a document the agency itself writes.

Section 2(b) then limits it: “Nothing in this section requires the alteration of previously issued regulations, Presidential actions, contracts, grants, or other historical documents.” A regulation that says “artificial intelligence” stays as written. An existing contract or grant agreement is not reopened.

The instruction runs to agencies only. A developer’s filings, contracts, product names and safety documents are outside the order. A company that files with a federal agency after September 29, 2026 may see the agency’s reply use “SI,” and nothing in the order requires the company to do the same.

## How does the order define “Super Intelligence”?

By cross-reference. Section 3(a) says that, “except where otherwise provided by law, the terms ‘Super Intelligence’ and ‘SI’ mean the technologies and systems encompassed by the term ‘artificial intelligence’ as defined in section 9401(3) of title 15, United States Code.”

That statute is the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020, enacted on January 1, 2021. Its definition reads: “a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations or decisions influencing real or virtual environments,” using machine and human-based inputs to perceive environments, abstract perceptions into models, and use model inference to formulate options for information or action.

So the order sets no capability line. A machine-learning spam filter and a frontier model both fit the statutory definition, and both are “Super Intelligence” for the order’s purposes. The order does not use the compute thresholds that the EU AI Act, California’s SB 53 and New York’s RAISE Act use to single out the largest models; those are explained in [compute thresholds](https://superintelligencelicensing.com/guides/compute-thresholds).

Section 3(a) also says the cross-reference “shall govern the implementation of this order unless and until superseded by subsequent Presidential action consistent with applicable law or by an Act of Congress.” The definition can change, but only by a later order or a statute.

## What is due within 60 days?

Section 3(b) directs the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (APST), “in consultation with the heads of other agencies as the APST deems appropriate,” to submit to the President “proposed legislative language to establish a Federal definition of ‘Super Intelligence’ and ‘SI’ that reflects the capabilities described in section 1.” Sixty days from September 29, 2026 is November 28, 2026.

The proposal must cover:

- an assessment of whether, and how far, the new definition should modify, expand upon or supersede the existing statutory definition of “artificial intelligence”;
- any proposed conforming amendments to existing statutory references to “artificial intelligence” and “AI”; and
- recommendations for any further Presidential or executive action needed to implement the proposed definition across the executive branch.
Read closely, the wording limits what November 28 can deliver. The proposal goes to the President, and the order does not say it will be published. It is “proposed legislative language,” which only Congress can enact. And the capabilities it is to reflect are the ones “described in section 1,” which is a purpose statement rather than a test, so the order leaves the content of any future capability definition open.

As of November 2, 2026, we found no published APST proposal. The [White House AI tracker](https://superintelligencelicensing.com/white-house) on this site checks whitehouse.gov and the Federal Register’s presidential documents every 6 hours, so an implementing order, or a proposal announced in a White House presidential action, fact sheet or news post, would appear there before it appears in this guide.

Later Federal Register documents cite the order. The first was a Treasury Department proposed rule on outbound investment (FR Doc. 2026-21786, 91 FR 67396, October 26, 2026). It proposes a definition of “super intelligence (SI) system” that Treasury describes as generally consistent, with some modifications, with the “AI system” definition in its current outbound-investment rules, and it cites Executive Order 14434 for the change of name. The notification duties and prohibitions in that proposal come from Title VIII of the Defense Production Act, not from the order. Comments are due December 7, 2026. Agency rules, such as the Treasury proposal, are not on the tracker.

Two final rules followed, each citing the order for its use of “super intelligence” or “SI” in place of “AI”: a Department of Health and Human Services rule on health IT certification (91 FR 67916, October 28, 2026) and a Department of Education rule on accrediting agencies (91 FR 68626, October 30, 2026). Neither creates a duty from the order itself.

## What does the order not do?

It does not license, register, approve or restrict anything. Its title and section 1 make it easy to read as the first piece of a permitting regime, and it was signed six days after Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act of 2026 (S. 5493), a bill that has not been enacted. The order is not part of any permitting regime.

- **No duty on developers.** Section 2 binds “executive departments and agencies.” No section names companies, researchers or model developers.
- **No capability threshold.** Section 3(a) adopts the statutory definition unchanged. Nothing turns on model size, training compute or benchmark results.
- **No change to statutes or existing regulations.** An executive order cannot amend a statute, and section 2(b) says prior regulations, Presidential actions, contracts and grants need not be altered.
- **No new rights.** Section 4(c) states that the order “is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party.”
- **No effect on state law.** The order says nothing about state AI laws. California’s SB 53 took effect January 1, 2026 and New York’s RAISE Act takes effect January 1, 2027 regardless of it. See [New York RAISE Act requirements](https://superintelligencelicensing.com/guides/new-york-raise-act-requirements).
- **No new appropriations.** Section 4(b) makes implementation “subject to the availability of appropriations,” and section 4(d) charges only the cost of publishing the order to the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Two earlier orders are easy to confuse with this one. Executive Order 14409 (June 2, 2026) deals with pre-release access to “covered frontier models” through a voluntary framework, and Executive Order 14365 (December 11, 2025) directs federal pressure on state AI laws. Neither is amended or mentioned by Executive Order 14434. The [frontier AI laws guide](https://superintelligencelicensing.com/guides/frontier-ai-laws#does-any-u-s-executive-order-require-a-license-for-frontier) covers what each of those orders does and does not require.

## What does each section of EO 14434 say?

**Executive Order 14434, 91 FR 63129, by section**

| Section | What it says | Who it binds |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Purpose | Policy that the executive branch use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI,” to the maximum extent permitted by law | Executive branch |
| 2. Implementation | (a) Agencies use the new terms in correspondence, communications, websites, reports, policy and other non-statutory documents. (b) No need to alter prior regulations, Presidential actions, contracts, grants or historical documents | Executive departments and agencies |
| 3. Definition | (a) The terms mean what “artificial intelligence” means in 15 U.S.C. 9401(3), until a later order or an Act of Congress changes that. (b) APST submits proposed legislative language for a federal definition within 60 days | APST; definition applies to the order itself |
| 4. General provisions | Preserves agency authority and OMB functions; implementation consistent with law and subject to appropriations; no enforceable rights created; publication costs borne by OSTP | Executive branch |

## How do si.gov and this site’s tracker relate to the order?

Neither is part of the order, which does not mention si.gov. That site is a White House website that calls itself America’s home for Super Intelligence policy. As of November 2, 2026 it presents initiatives rather than rules: the Genesis Mission, an SI Education task force for K-12 schools, a Pledge to America’s Youth for companies committing resources to SI education, and the Presidential SI Challenge run with the First Lady, plus an email sign-up. Its sitemap lists three pages. It does not publish the order’s text and it imposes nothing on anyone.

The [White House AI tracker](https://superintelligencelicensing.com/white-house) on this site is an auto-updated list of White House and Federal Register items on AI, kept when the title or text matches AI terms. It reads whitehouse.gov presidential actions, fact sheets and news, the Federal Register’s presidential documents and the si.gov sitemap every 6 hours, quotes each item’s own title, date and excerpt, and links to the original. Executive Order 14434 and its fact sheet are both on it, each with its Federal Register citation where one exists. The tracker quotes; this guide explains. When the two disagree, the tracker is the more recent and the primary text is the authority.

## What happens next?

- **November 28, 2026:** the section 3(b) deadline for the APST’s proposal to the President. The order does not require publication, so silence after that date does not mean the deadline was missed.
- **Any bill carrying the proposed definition:** only an Act of Congress can put a capability-based definition into statute. A federal definition that drew a line by capability would be the first in U.S. law, since no law in force defines “superintelligence” by capability as of November 2026.
- **Agency usage:** websites, reports, proposed rules and final rules are shifting to “SI.” Treasury’s October 26, 2026 outbound-investment proposal uses “SI system” as a defined term. The new name adds no duty; any duty in such a rule comes from the statute the rule carries out.
This guide states the order’s text as published in the Federal Register and is general information, not legal advice.

## Sources

- [Executive Order 14434, Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/02/2026-20321/inaugurating-the-era-of-super-intelligence), 91 FR 63129, signed September 29, 2026, published October 2, 2026 (FR Doc. 2026-20321), Federal Register.
- [Inaugurating The Era Of Super Intelligence](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/inaugurating-the-era-of-super-intelligence/), The White House, Presidential Actions, September 29, 2026.
- [Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Inaugurates The Era of Super Intelligence](https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/09/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-inaugurates-the-era-of-super-intelligence/), The White House, September 29, 2026.
- [15 U.S.C. 9401, Definitions](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title15/html/USCODE-2024-title15-chap119-sec9401.htm) (National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020, Pub. L. 116-283, div. E, § 5002, January 1, 2021), U.S. Government Publishing Office, United States Code 2024 edition.
- [Outbound Investment Security Program Regulations](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/26/2026-21786/outbound-investment-security-program-regulations), proposed rule, Department of the Treasury, 91 FR 67396, October 26, 2026 (FR Doc. 2026-21786), Federal Register.
- [S. 5493, Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act of 2026 (introduced)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119s5493is/html/BILLS-119s5493is.htm), U.S. Government Publishing Office, September 23, 2026.
- [SI.gov, America’s Super Intelligence Initiatives](https://www.si.gov/), The White House, accessed November 2, 2026.
- [White House AI tracker](https://superintelligencelicensing.com/white-house), SuperintelligenceLicensing.com, auto-updated every 6 hours from whitehouse.gov, the Federal Register and si.gov.

## Common questions

**Does Executive Order 14434 require a license to build AI?**

No. The order binds executive departments and agencies, not developers. Section 2 tells agencies to use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in their own non-statutory documents, section 3 defines the terms by reference to 15 U.S.C. 9401(3), and section 4(c) says the order creates no enforceable right or benefit. It contains no license, permit, registration or reporting duty.

**How does EO 14434 define “Super Intelligence”?**

By cross-reference, not by capability. Section 3(a) says the terms mean the technologies and systems covered by the statutory definition of “artificial intelligence” in 15 U.S.C. 9401(3), which describes any machine-based system that makes predictions, recommendations or decisions for human-defined objectives. That definition governs until a later Presidential action or an Act of Congress changes it.

**What happens on November 28, 2026?**

Section 3(b) gives the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology 60 days from September 29, 2026 to submit proposed legislative language for a federal definition of “Super Intelligence” to the President. The order does not require the proposal to be published, and only Congress can enact it.