'We are getting a lot of pressure from the administrator himself': How NASA is racing to obey Trump's 'Super Intelligence' order

NASA has begun replacing references to artificial intelligence with "super intelligence" following an executive order from President Donald Trump, which directs government agencies not to acknowledge the terminology change in their external communications.

An internal NASA document obtained by Space.com lays out plans to update the agency's websites, publications, organizational titles and digital infrastructure with a four-phase "super intelligence" implementation schedule extending into December.

And the changes go beyond NASA's public-facing communications, with at least one planned technical update described as "a breaking change" expected to disrupt existing software integrations.

The terminology shift arrives as NASA continues expanding its use of AI across missions and research programs, from autonomous Mars rover navigation to models capable of analyzing enormous amounts of scientific data.

The technologies themselves aren't changing, but NASA's effort to implement the nomenclature introduces new obstacles for scientific communication and the agency's digital infrastructure.

Trump's executive order (EO), called " Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence ," was signed on Sept.

29.

It directs federal agencies to replace any mention of "artificial intelligence" and "AI" with "super intelligence" and "SI" in all official government communications.

The White House argues that AI has advanced beyond simple automation or imitations of human intelligence, and that language befitting "a new era of Super Intelligence" is needed to better reflect the technology's emerging capabilities.

Despite introducing the new name, the order retains the federal government's existing definition of artificial intelligence, which broadly covers machine-based learning systems capable of making predictions, recommendations or decisions.

That means technologies already classified as AI can now be designated "super intelligence" without demonstrating any additional capabilities.

To follow suit, NASA's Office of Communications (OCOMM) and Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) distributed an internal implementation schedule that outlines the span of work that the agency's multiple comms teams now have ahead of them.

"Effective immediately, we must use "super intelligence" and "SI" in all in-scope content/publications," the document says, bolding the key terms.