What EO 14434 Does — and Doesn’t Reach
What it does.
Executive Order 14434, “Inaugurating the Era
of Super Intelligence,” signed September 29,
2026 (Source: Federal Register, EO 14434, FR Doc. 2026-20321),
directs executive departments and agencies to use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in
place of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” — “to the maximum extent
permitted by law” — in official correspondence, public communications, websites, reports, and
policy documents inside the executive branch. Section 2(b) is explicit that nothing in the order requires
altering previously issued regulations, contracts, grants, or historical documents.
What it doesn’t reach — and what’s unsettled. FINRA is a private
self-regulatory organization, not a government agency, so Section 2(a)’s rename directive does not
reach it at all. Whether independent federal regulators such as the SEC, the Federal Reserve Board, and
the FDIC fall inside Section 2(a) is not settled: the order does not define “agencies,” and an
independent regulatory agency is not the same thing as a Cabinet-level executive department. By contrast,
the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is, by its own description, “an independent bureau of
the U.S. Department of the
Treasury” (Source: OCC, Who We Are)
— a bureau of an executive department, and squarely within Section 2(a)’s scope. Expect OCC
public communications to start shifting toward “SI” over time, even as its existing bulletins
and regulations stay exactly as issued under Section 2(b). No SEC, FINRA, OCC, Federal Reserve, or FDIC
document uses “Super Intelligence” or “SI” as of October 11, 2026.
One caveat worth noting. Section 3(a) of the order defines “SI” as exactly
the technology already covered by the statutory definition of “artificial intelligence” at 15
U.S.C. §9401(3) — “unless and until superseded by subsequent Presidential action…
or an Act of Congress.” Section 3(b) gives the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology
60 days from signing (to roughly late November 2026) to propose legislative language that could modify
that definition. “Nothing changes” is the current state, not a permanent guarantee, which is
worth tracking as that 60-day window closes.
For the use cases themselves — investment research, compliance documentation, client communications,
and on-premise deployment for regulated data — see
Iternal’s banking, financial services
& insurance use cases, which this terminology shift does not change.
