What is superintelligence?

What the word means in AI research

The philosopher Nick Bostrom gave an early definition in a paper published in 1998. He described a superintelligence as an intellect much smarter than the best human brains in practically every field. He named scientific creativity, general wisdom and social skills.

A 2023 paper by Meredith Ringel Morris and seven co-authors ranks AI systems by level. Its top level is artificial superintelligence, or ASI. The paper describes that as a general system that outperforms 100% of humans. The paper was last revised in September 2025. It lists ASI as not yet achieved.

AI companies use the word for a goal. In an OpenAI post from May 2023, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever described it as future AI systems far more capable than even AGI. AGI stands for artificial general intelligence. A July 2025 letter on Meta's website, signed "Mark," said developing superintelligence was "now in sight."

Why some people want it banned

A statement hosted by the Future of Life Institute calls for a prohibition on developing superintelligence. It says the ban should not be lifted before there is broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably. It also sets strong public buy-in as a condition. The page showed more than 77,000 signatures on October 9, 2026.

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, Al Jazeera reported on September 30, 2026. It said the bill would permanently ban the development and deployment of artificial superintelligence.

How the US government uses the term

Executive Order 14434, signed on September 29, 2026, uses the words differently. It tells federal agencies to use "Super Intelligence" and "SI" in place of "Artificial Intelligence" and "AI." For now, the order defines the new term by pointing to the legal definition of artificial intelligence. That definition covers a machine-based system that can make predictions, recommendations or decisions for human-defined objectives.

So the federal label covers AI systems in general. It is not limited to systems that surpass people. The order gives the president's science and technology adviser 60 days to propose legislative language for a federal definition.