The SEC is adopting the term “super intelligence” and is ditching the term “artificial intelligence” in its Fiscal Year 2027 examination priorities.
The exam priorities were published on Friday, and the change reflects the language used in President Trump’s Executive Order.
The change by the SEC also mentions crypto just once inside a line about tokenization.
Where the “super intelligence” term comes from
The new terminology did not come out of thin air. In fact, the term emanates from Executive Order 14434, “Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence,” signed by President Trump on September 29, 2026.
The executive order was published in the Federal Register on the 2nd of October. The order mandates agencies to use the term “Super Intelligence” and “SI” rather than “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” across websites, reports, policy documents, and other non-statutory materials. And the executive branch “will not acknowledge” the older terms.
The legal ramifications might be too deep, especially because the order does not change much in the near future. In fact, based on the analysis of Arnold & Porter attorneys Alexis C. Archer and Eun Young Choi, the executive order starts a 60-day window that runs till late November 2026 for the White House to draft federal legislation that will redefine the technology in federal law.
National Institute of Standards and Technology has followed the directives of the executive order.
The SEC made the switch before now
The SEC had adopted the new language prior to the release of the FY 2027 report. The SEC has a page dedicated to explaining the agency’s use of the new term.
The page, named “Super Intelligence at the SEC,” details a Super Intelligent Task Force created in August 2025, with Valerie Szczepanik appointed as the Chief SI Officer at the SEC and saddled with the responsibility of SI innovation, adoption, and governance across divisions.
Super Intelligence can be found under info security and operational resiliency in the new exam priorities. Examiners will look to scrutinize emerging technologies, including super intelligence, and how they affect market operations, compliance, and fraud prevention and investor protection.
Crypto shrinks to just one word: tokenization
The SEC is moving differently this year, at least compared to other years. For instance, based on a report from November last year, the SEC dropped crypto from its FY 2026 exam priorities and placed more emphasis on AI, cybersecurity, and new rules.
But this year, the FY 2027 document leaves crypto on the list, albeit as a subtopic as one of the risks linked to “evolving market infrastructure,” together with Treasury clearing reforms and tokenization.
However, such framing is at odds with the digital asset agenda set forth by Chairman Paul S. Atkins. In a statement released on the 1st of October, Chairman Atkins put forward a proposal that will set custody rules for crypto assets as “another element of a comprehensive crypto asset regulatory approach.”
He cited the January 2026 tokenization taxonomy and an Innovation Exemption that will facilitate trading of tokenized NMS stock.
What the exam program still covers
Aside from technology, the FY 2027 priorities stick to the usual: investment advisers’ fiduciary duties and conflicts of interest, retail protection around complex and illiquid products, private funds and private credit, broker-dealer financial responsibility and anti-money-laundering compliance, and cybersecurity.
However, the list is subject to change during the year as the program is designed to evolve with the market trends, according to Keith Cassidy, director of the Division of Examinations.
Watch the late-November deadline for the White House’s proposed legal definition of “super intelligence,” which could eventually change how statutes that reference AI apply.
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