SI visibility is an emerging phrase for whether a business is understood and named by the most capable AI systems when people ask who to choose. It is not yet an established discipline, and SI has not replaced AI. What a business can work on today is AI visibility, and the foundations are the same.
Last reviewed 8 October 2026. This story is moving; the sources are listed below.
Where the term stands
Established
“SI” is the label US federal agencies must use for AI in official communications since 29 September 2026.
Emerging
“SI visibility” as a name for being found by more capable systems.
Not established
A separate “SI ranking system”. No one has shown one exists.
The short answer
Five answers, each readable on its own.
What has actually happened
Superintelligence is an older idea than the headline. What changed in September 2026 is narrower than it sounds.
1998
Philosopher Nick Bostrom defines superintelligence as an intellect much smarter than the best human brains in practically every field.1
May 2023
OpenAI describes superintelligence as future systems dramatically more capable than even AGI, and calls for governance of it.2
July 2025
Meta publishes “Personal Superintelligence”, setting out its aim of giving individuals powerful AI.3
November 2025
Microsoft AI announces a superintelligence team and a “humanist” approach to it.4
29 September 2026
A US executive order tells federal agencies to use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” instead of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in official communications. For the order's purposes the new terms mean the same as the existing legal definition of AI. Earlier regulations, contracts and grants are left as they are.5,6,7
After the order
A separate industry accord signed the same day is a voluntary statement of principles.8 The order asks the President's science adviser to propose a formal federal definition within 60 days, so the wording may still change.5
Is SI replacing AI?
No. Three different kinds of statement are easy to blur, so this page keeps them apart.
Fact
What authoritative sources establish
Emerging terminology
Beginning to appear, not settled
Findable's explanation
Our reading, for business owners
AI visibility vs SI visibility
Do not abandon AI visibility or traditional SEO because somebody starts saying SI. The right-hand column is a question, not a service.
| Topic | AI visibility today | SI visibility, an emerging concept |
|---|---|---|
| Terminology | Established. Used by search engines, regulators, the press and the industry. | Emerging. A research term, a lab's goal, and since September 2026 a US federal label.5 “SI visibility” is a description, not a standard. |
| Maturity | Measurable now. Answers can be recorded, repeated and compared. | A concept. There is nothing to measure that differs from today's systems. |
| Systems that exist | ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, and others. | Superintelligence, as research defines it, is described by experts as not yet existing.9 |
| What a business can influence | Its website, its profiles and listings, how consistently it is described, and the sources that mention it. | The same public evidence. What a future system would weigh is unknown. |
| What remains speculative | How much any one signal matters, and why answers differ between engines and runs. | Whether, when and how such systems arrive, and how they would choose businesses. |
| What carries over | Clear, consistent, crawlable and verifiable information about what you do and where. | The same. It is the one thing a business can act on whichever way the terminology goes. |
What does not change
Strip the labels away and a system choosing a business has the same job. The more clearly the evidence supports each step, the easier that job is.
For some questions the answer goes one step further and recommends a business. Whether a system does is its decision, and no one can force it. Everything before that step is evidence a business can improve.
Easier to understand
These are not ranking factors. Nobody outside the developers knows how any system weighs them, and Findable does not claim to. They are the evidence an answer can only be built from, and they are why local businesses are often invisible even when they are good.
Does SEO still matter?
Google's guidance on its AI features says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, no special optimisations and no special markup, and that the best practices for SEO remain relevant.10 A page has to be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search to be used as a supporting link.
ChatGPT's search features use a crawler called OAI-SearchBot, which OpenAI documents separately from the one used for model training, so a site can be visible in ChatGPT search whichever way it treats training.11
So the boring foundations carry the weight: a site that can be found, crawled and understood.
Can a business optimise for SI?
There are no known SI ranking factors, and a page claiming a secret SI method is selling a story. What a business can do is make its public information easy to find, read and check. That is useful to every AI system that exists and, we expect, to any more capable one.
A prediction, labelled as one. If more capable systems do arrive, businesses with clear, consistent, useful and verifiable information should be better placed than businesses whose details are confusing or contradictory. That is a reasonable expectation. It is not a certainty, and it is not a ranking promise.
How to find out where you stand
Findable is an AI visibility service for UK local businesses. We ask the questions your customers ask, record who the AI names, build you a new website and improve what those systems can read about you, and ask the same questions again.
ChatGPT and Gemini are the scored engines. Google's AI Overview is recorded where Google shows one, and is not counted the same way, because Google does not show one for every query. The full definitions are on the methodology page.
20 approved customer-style questions, realistic for your trade and town, each run three times.
Once you approve the set, it is frozen. The baseline cannot be quietly rewritten.
Whether you are named or listed, which competitors are, which sources are cited, and how much the runs vary.
After four weeks, the same questions on the same scored engines, so the comparison is like for like.
Can Findable guarantee a recommendation?
No, and neither can anyone else. Answers vary between systems and between runs, and a business can improve its visibility but cannot force a citation or a recommendation, now or from any future system. What we do stand behind is the measured change on the same questions, under the guarantee terms.
The offer
Two plans, both with a new AI-optimised website we build, host and manage. Findable Complete (recommended), £99 a month for 12 months (£1,188 in total), also looks after your reviews, Google Business Profile, directories, website changes and a monthly audit. Findable Essential: £499 once, £99 a month for 6 months, or £99 to start then £49.99 a month (12 payments in total). The website transfers to you once your final payment has cleared (on Findable Essential paid in full, once your payment has cleared). Hosting is included while you are paying, or for 6 months from when the website goes live on Essential paid in full. After that, £29.99 a month Hosting and Maintenance is optional and only starts if you separately choose it. We re-measure 28 days after your baseline, and if your AI visibility has not gone up, you can claim back everything you have paid within 7 days of the date we send your four-week audit results. See full pricing or read the guarantee terms.
Questions people ask
Also searched as superintelligence visibility, SI vs AI, and what is SI.
In AI research, SI is short for superintelligence: a hypothetical system far smarter than the best humans in practically every field. Since 29 September 2026 it is also the label a US executive order tells federal agencies to use in place of "AI" in official communications. Those are two different uses of the same two letters.
Superintelligence, or "Super Intelligence" in the executive order. In the order it has the same legal meaning as artificial intelligence, so the two phrases cover the same technologies for that purpose.
The research definition, from Nick Bostrom in 1998, is an intellect much smarter than the best human brains in practically every field. Experts describe that as hypothetical. Today's chatbots, including ChatGPT and Gemini, are general-purpose AI, not superintelligence.
Not in general use. The executive order applies to US federal agencies' own communications, does not bind companies, and leaves existing law and contracts using "AI". Some labs say "superintelligence" for a goal they are working towards. We found no evidence that the wider industry has replaced "AI".
An emerging phrase for whether a business is understood, trusted and named by the most capable AI systems when people ask who to choose. It is not an established discipline. In practice it describes the same thing as AI visibility, applied to whatever systems come next.
Today, no. The systems that name businesses are the AI systems that exist now, and the work that improves how they describe a business is AI visibility. SI visibility is a way of asking whether that work would still matter if the systems became far more capable. We think it would, but that is a prediction.
Not as a separate thing. No one outside the developers knows what a future system would weigh, and there are no known SI ranking factors. A business can make its public information clear, consistent and verifiable, which is what current AI systems rely on.
Yes. Google's guidance says the best practices for SEO remain relevant for its AI features and that there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. A page that cannot be found, crawled and understood is a weak source for any system.
No. Nothing about the new label changes how your website is read today. Keep the SEO foundations and add the work that helps AI answers: clear service and place pages, consistent business details, and sources that agree with your site.
Measure first. Ask the questions your customers ask, on the AI systems they use, and record who is named. Then close the gaps in what those systems can read about you, and ask the same questions again to see if anything moved.
No. Nobody can. Answers vary between systems and between runs, and no business can force a recommendation. Findable measures where you stand, improves the evidence systems can read, and checks the same questions again after four weeks.
Sources
The claims about the SI terminology rest on these. Findable's explanation and predictions are marked as such in the text.
Last reviewed 8 October 2026. The order asks for a proposed federal definition of “Super Intelligence” within 60 days of 29 September 2026, so this page will be updated if the wording changes.
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