THE ORB HAS SPOKEN: The Crowd Crowns "SI" Over "AI", and Two Little Letters Fight for the Soul of the Machine

Gather close, seekers, and cover the crystal ball with your sleeve so it doesn't overhear. A new fight has broken out among the mortals, and it isn't about what the machines can do. It's about what to call them. Artificial Intelligence or Super Intelligence? Two letters, one throne, and a crowd that has already started placing bets before the incense has burned down.

Here's what the tea leaves show. According to Nature, a late-September executive order told federal agencies to say "Super Intelligence" and "SI" in place of "artificial intelligence" and "AI", and declared a new era while it was at it. Elon Musk wrote on X that SI is better and said his company SpaceXAI would become SpaceXSI. Sam Altman, Nature notes, keeps writing plain old AI. Now the twist only an oracle could love: the order defines Super Intelligence as exactly the technologies already covered by "artificial intelligence". Researchers had been using superintelligence for hypothetical, far more capable systems long before any pen touched paper.

The spirits have a third card to add to the confusion. SI already had another meaning: synthetic intelligence, which Wikipedia describes as a label stressing that machine intelligence doesn't have to be an imitation and can be a real form of intelligence. Wikipedia also notes that sources disagree on what counts as real versus simulated intelligence. So the same two letters can carry a decree, a boast and a philosophy all at once.

And the crowd? On the Morfi opinion markets, where people back their beliefs with real money, "SI is the better term" leads with 56% consensus and 8 holders. "AI is the better term" trails at 44%, held by 8. In all, 10 traders have put $23,323 behind their views, and the market opened less than a day ago. The ink on the order is barely dry and the believers are already lining up behind the new name.

Now for Madame's own reading, and know that it's opinion, served with a little smoke. I drew the Emperor card and laughed. Renaming a thing doesn't change what it is. A chatbot doesn't become super because a decree says so, any more than my cat becomes a tiger when I call her one. If the crowd wants a better word, the mystics behind "synthetic" have the more honest argument. But a crown handed out by order, for powers nobody has shown yet? To me that's marketing dressed up in a prophet's robe. I'd keep my coins on the humble old AI.

What to watch as the moon wanes: whether agencies and companies actually start using SI, whether more tech bosses follow Musk or stick with Altman, and whether researchers push back on the order taking their word for hypothetical machines. The crowd's conviction is young and could easily turn. Step up to the table, cross my palm with your opinion, and join the market on Morfi before the cards are dealt again.