Newsom orders California agencies to keep calling AI "AI"
A new California executive order tells state agencies to retain the term artificial intelligence after Trump's federal Super Intelligence directive.
California answers the federal renaming order
Governor Gavin Newsom issued a California executive order on September 30 requiring state agencies to continue referring to the technology as artificial intelligence or AI, Politico reported. The signed state order, N-10-26, followed President Donald Trump’s September 29 directive telling federal executive departments and agencies to use Super Intelligence and SI in official communications where permitted by law. The governor’s office presented its move as an explicit rejection of that rebrand. It announced the naming directive alongside new AI-related worker and consumer protections, which are separate actions.
What the order changes
The immediate effect is a split in government terminology: California state agencies are directed to keep using AI, while the federal executive branch has been told to use SI. Neither order establishes that current systems have become technically superintelligent. California’s instruction does not cancel the federal order, rewrite private companies’ product names or change the technology’s capabilities. The distinction matters because the argument is about the language used in official documents, not a new model release or a scientific finding. How consistently agencies adopt the competing terms remains to be seen.