The Navy and Marine Corps Now Say 'Super Intelligence': What the First Military Switch Means for .si Buyers

The Navy is the first service to make the switch

The Navy has told its commands to stop writing "artificial intelligence" and start writing "super intelligence". Stars and Stripes reported on 23 October that the change covers the Navy and the Marine Corps, that it comes from an administrative memo issued Thursday, and that the abbreviation "SI" will replace "AI".

Starting this week, Navy websites, correspondence, training materials, fleet advisories and other official documents will use the new term, according to the memo. The service said the technology's capabilities "transcend historical definitions of automation".

I've already written about the executive order and the State Department's wording rule, so I won't go over them again. The new part is that this is the military, and Stars and Stripes says the Navy appears to be the first service to formally address the change.

What the memo actually says

Here's the key line from the memo, as Stars and Stripes quoted it:

"To the maximum extent permitted by law, commands and organizations will use 'Super Intelligence' and 'SI' in place of 'Artificial Intelligence' and 'AI' in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory documents."

Two phrases in there matter for domain buyers: "to the maximum extent permitted by law" and "non-statutory documents". They tell you this is a rule about wording. It doesn't change any law. Stars and Stripes makes the same point about another rename: the Defense Department calls itself the Department of War, but its statutory name is still the Department of Defense.

So the label changes wherever the government controls the words. It doesn't change what the public types into a search box.

Where the order came from, and who hasn't moved yet

President Trump ordered all executive branch offices and departments, including the military services, to make the switch last month. In a Sept. 22 speech to the U.N. General Assembly he said: "The use of the word 'artificial' makes intelligence fake," and "It makes it sound fake, and it is not fake."

The rest of the military hasn't followed yet, at least not in public. The Army and Air Force didn't immediately respond when Stars and Stripes asked whether they'd issued, or planned to issue, similar memos. It also wasn't clear on Friday how the Space Force was handling the directive.

The same report has a useful reality check. In AI research, super intelligence means a hypothetical state where a machine's intellect, reasoning, problem-solving and creativity outstrip those of the greatest human minds, and no system has shown that capacity. The word is moving faster than the technology.

The term is spreading beyond government

It isn't only agencies. On 20 October, BFMTV reported that Elon Musk said SpaceX and Tesla had set up special committees to discuss a merger. Superintelligence software development was one of the areas where he said the two could work together. He also said it'd be premature to assume a merger will happen.

Marketers have picked it up too. A paid press release on Yahoo Finance on 25 October ran under the headline "SI vs. AI", and Yahoo labels it clearly: "This is a paid press release." To me that kind of content is a sign of hype. It isn't evidence that buyers want the term.

Investors are watching as well. On 21 October the Swiss outlet Allnews wrote that if the tech giants can't show they can make money from their huge AI spending, investors might be tempted to unwind positions built up in the name of superintelligence. The label could lose its shine as fast as it gained it.

What this changes for .si buyers

A branch of the military putting "SI" into its official writing is a stronger signal than a paid press release. Anyone reading Navy websites, public communications or reports will now see "SI" where they used to see "AI".

Still, I wouldn't read too much into it. The memo covers official documents, not what consumers search for, and the plain AI phrases still bring the traffic. In my inventory, the exact phrase behind aivideoeditor.si gets 201,000 searches a month worldwide, and so does the phrase behind aiprompts.si. A Navy memo doesn't change that.

That's why I think a .si works best as a cheaper home for generic words whose .com and .ai are taken or expensive. It isn't a bet that "SI" will replace "AI" in everyday speech.

A few names in my inventory pass that test:

• aiprompts.si, $5,500: over 200,000 searches a month for the exact phrase. The .ai is listed at $44,500 and the .com has been held since 2018.
• aivideoeditor.si, $5,000: 201,000 searches a month worldwide. The .com asks $149,995.
• liedetector.si, $3,000: 60,500 searches a month. The .ai asks $65,000 and the .com has been held since 1998.
• greatmind.si, $2,000: 33,100 searches a month. The .com is listed at $500,000.
• futurehuman.si, $1,500: 5,400 searches a month and a .ai asking $290,000. It's the most speculative name on this list.

Should you buy a .si name because of this?

Not because of the memo alone. Most .si names are speculation, and the aftermarket is small. If you're a founder and the .com for your words is available at a fair price, buy the .com. For most people it's still the better buy.

Before you buy any .si, ask three questions:

1. Are the .com and .ai taken, or expensive? If either is cheap and available, buy that one instead.
2. Is it a generic name and not a brand? Don't buy a name that copies one company's brand, a military programme or a unit name. Plain descriptive words are the only safe ground.
3. Do people search for it? Check that real people search for the phrase every month. If they don't, the Navy's wording won't create that demand for you.

If a name passes all three, a .si can be a sensible, cheaper choice. If it fails any one of them, walk away, whatever the next government memo says.

Names from this store that pass the test

Questions

Sources

1. Stars and Stripes, 2026-10-23
2. BFMTV, 2026-10-20
3. Yahoo Finance, 2026-10-25
4. Allnews, 2026-10-21

This post was researched and drafted with AI help from the sources above, then checked by me before publishing. Facts are as reported on the dates shown.