Pentagon renames AI office the Super Intelligence Office

The redesignation formalizes a terminology shift that began at the top. In September, President Donald Trump announced that all federal agencies should replace references to AI with "super intelligence," or SI, arguing that the word "artificial" made the technology sound fake despite its growing capabilities. The Pentagon's move carries that instruction into the department's organizational chart.

The rename lands on an office that has been among the federal government's most aggressive adopters of AI technology. The CDAO led efforts to widen access to commercial generative AI models for military personnel through GenAI.mil, and its portfolio includes the Maven Smart System, an AI-enabled intelligence and targeting platform, and the War Data Platform, a central data hub formerly known as Advana. It has also run numerous exercises aimed at integrating AI across the department.

The terminology has drawn questions within the tech community, where "superintelligence" has historically referred to a specific, hypothetical form of general artificial intelligence that exceeds overall human intelligence — a capability that does not currently exist. The DoD, for its part, frames the change as a signal of priorities rather than a new mission, with the transition rolling out across digital systems, enterprise applications and component headquarters over the coming weeks.