AI summary
- On 8 October, Trump posted that the White House sees anyone who uses "artificial intelligence" instead of "super intelligence" as "THE ENEMY".
- The executive order only covers federal agencies, sets no penalty and doesn't require private companies to switch.
- Only Congress can change the legal definition of AI, and the President's science adviser has until 28 November to draft a proposal.
- Spaceship now sells .si at $10.98 a year, which makes registering cheap but doesn't make most .si names worth more.
- Buy a .si only for a plain generic phrase whose .com and .ai are taken or expensive.
What Trump posted on 8 October
The SI push got louder this week. On 8 October, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the White House sees anyone who still says "artificial intelligence" as the enemy. Here's the exact wording, as The Next Web reported it:
"The White House considers anyone that uses the term, “Artificial Intelligence,” as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term, “Super Intelligence,” THE ENEMY!"
It's the strongest language yet behind the executive order he signed on 29 September. But what the post didn't say matters more if you're weighing a .si name. The Next Web notes that the President didn't say what would happen to people or firms that keep using the old term.
Agencies are switching, the rest of us aren't required to
Inside government, the change is happening. The Justice Department told staff on 6 October to use the new term, including in court filings "when appropriate", Reuters reported. ProPakistani notes that the US Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) has been renamed the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence (CAISSI). It also points to a Justice Department press release that described a case as "Super Intelligence-Assisted Music Streaming Fraud".
Outside government, it's a different story. The order is addressed only to federal departments and agencies, it imposes no penalty for using the old term, and it says it creates no rights enforceable against the government or any other person. ProPakistani puts it simply: there's no requirement for private companies to adopt it.
Past court rulings support that split. "The Free Speech Clause restricts government regulation of private speech; it does not regulate government speech," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a 2009 Supreme Court ruling. And in NRA v. Vullo in May 2024, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing: "A government official cannot coerce a private party to punish or suppress disfavored speech on her behalf."
Congress, not the White House, owns the legal word
Artificial intelligence is defined in law in the National AI Initiative Act of 2020, and only Congress can change that. Both the House and the Senate would have to pass a new law, and the President would have to sign it. As a first step, the President's science adviser has until 28 November to write a proposal for Congress.
That's the next date I'd watch. Even if a new law passes, though, The Next Web points out that it would only change the words the government uses. Companies, journalists and the public could still say "AI".
The public and the industry still aren't sold
- An Axios YouGov poll, reported by NTD News, found 53 percent of respondents prefer the term artificial intelligence, with only nine percent favouring the switch to superintelligence.
- Jean-Pierre Dubé, a marketing professor at the University of Chicago, told Newsweek that the existing meaning of superintelligence makes the new name unlikely to catch on soon.
- Sam Altman has praised the proposal, but he's indicated that OpenAI won't change its company name.
- Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the Chamber of Progress, told Politico: "It is a way for the CEOs to signal fealty to the president. No one in the industry is about to start calling it superintelligence."
On the other side, Jeff Bezos told Fox News: "I do like SI, because ‘artificial’ is not a very flattering thing." So it's a real split, and it isn't settled.
.si is now a $10.98 registration
There's another development buyers shouldn't miss. On 6 October, Namecheap and Spaceship founder Richard Kirkendall announced that .si names could be registered and transferred at Spaceship, with a launch price of $10.98 a year and $11.98 for renewals, DomainInvesting.com reported.
Cheap, easy registration means more people chasing the same words. Elliot Silver of DomainInvesting.com wrote that he thinks ".SI is an even more speculative extension at the moment". He also wrote that he suspects "most of the most appealing .SI domain names have already been purchased by domain investors and speculators", and that he hasn't seen a whole lot of use by end user companies. I agree with him. Most .si names are speculation, and the aftermarket for them is small. A $10.98 registration doesn't change that. It just makes each guess cheaper.
Should you buy a .si name because of this?
Not because of the "enemy" post on its own. It doesn't bind anyone outside federal agencies, the legal definition still sits with Congress, and most of the public still prefers "AI". If the .com you want is available at a fair price, that's the better buy, and I'd tell you so.
A .si can make sense for a plain generic phrase whose .com and .ai are already taken or priced far out of reach. Plain "AI" phrases on .si don't depend on who wins the naming fight, because the words still describe the product. Here are a few from my own inventory, with the data as it stands:
- aimarket.si at $4,500: the .com is listed at $594,888 and the .ai at $47,995, with 12,100 searches a month.
- aiprompts.si at $5,500: 201,000 searches a month worldwide, the .ai listed at $44,500 and the .com held since 2018.
- aivideoeditor.si at $5,000: 201,000 searches a month worldwide, with the .com twin asking $149,995.
- futurehuman.si at $1,500: 5,400 searches a month, and the .ai version asks $290,000.
Before you buy any .si, whether it's mine or anyone else's, run the three-question test:
- Are the .com and .ai taken? If either is available at a price you can live with, buy that instead.
- Is it a generic name and not a brand? Stick to plain words. Never copy one company's name.
- Do people search for it? If nobody types the phrase, the extension won't save it.
If a name passes all three tests, a .si is a cheap way in. If it doesn't, keep your money. You can browse what I've got at aidomains.si, but don't buy anything just because of a Truth Social post.
Names from this store that pass the test
Questions
Does Trump's post mean companies have to stop saying AI?
No. The order is addressed only to federal departments and agencies, imposes no penalty for using the old term and creates no rights enforceable against the government or any other person. ProPakistani notes there's no requirement for private companies to adopt it.
What's the next date to watch?
The President's science adviser has until 28 November to write a proposal for Congress. Artificial intelligence is defined in the National AI Initiative Act of 2020, and only Congress can change that.
How much does it cost to register a .si at Spaceship?
Richard Kirkendall announced on 6 October that the launch price is $10.98 a year, with renewals at $11.98.
Does the public prefer SI?
Not so far. An Axios YouGov poll found 53 percent of respondents prefer artificial intelligence, and only nine percent favour switching to superintelligence.
Sources
- The Next Web, 2026-10-09
- ProPakistani, 2026-10-09
- DomainInvesting.com, 2026-10-06
- NTD News, 2026-10-05
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.