<img src="https://www.afcea.org/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/2026-10/IMG_3015.jpg?itok=KKOl8HQZ” alt=”Brandon Pugh, principal cyber adviser to the Secretary of the Army, speaks at the 2026 Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting & Exposition.” loading=”lazy”>
Brandon Pugh, principal cyber advisor to the secretary of the Army, speaks at the 2026 Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition.
U.S. Army officials are adopting and using the new term for artificial intelligence (AI): super intelligence (SI). Branch leaders put this shift on full display during a panel discussion on Monday.
“SI is real,” Lt. Gen. Christopher Eubank, commanding general of the U.S. Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER), said at the 2026 Association of the U.S. Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition. “It’s here to stay, and I think we should all just embrace it.”
As with AI, Army leaders are guaranteeing that SI will augment and further enable, rather than replace, the human.
“We are in the process of creating an agentic workforce that works hand-in-hand with the human workforce, so human-machine teaming [happens] each and every day,” Eubank said. “I think the thing people need to walk away with is what it’s doing for us. It is enabling us to move faster than we could ever move without it.”
Questions are swirling around about whether SI will replace the workforce, but Eubank stressed that he treats it as the opposite. The commanding general of ARCYBER said SI can unlock the potential of the workforce and that there will always be a human in the loop.
“Right now, we’re putting all the guardrails and safeguards in place,” Eubank said.
“[Every machining team we have] are checking in each and every day with the humans,” he added. “The humans are checking their work. If there’s retraining to be done, then the retraining occurs.”
Evidently, SI will not take the place of people.
The cyber workforce in the Army will also be the target of a new incentive pay pilot program, per Brandon Pugh, principal cyber advisor to the secretary of the Army. This development is designed to encourage individuals in the cyber workforce to hone and foster their skills and to prevent complacency.
“What the Army wanted to do for many years now is actually how are we making sure people continue to drive and progress in their career fields?” Pugh said during that same panel discussion. “That way, you’re not just stagnant. You become a cyber operator, and that’s it. How are we making sure that your experience and your training are signifying that you continue to progress but, then more importantly, tying funding to it?”
He added that taking this approach will not only retain staff members, but it will encourage them to become better at their craft. There will be a timeframe associated with this incentive pay pilot program, Pugh said.
This usage of the new super intelligence term comes less than two weeks after President Donald Trump unveiled and signed the “Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence” executive order. The directive orders executive branch personnel to use the ‘super intelligence’ and ‘SI’ terms instead of ‘artificial intelligence’ and ‘AI’ and to not acknowledge the usage of ‘artificial intelligence’ and ‘AI’ in any applicable setting.
The president explained that the purpose of this executive order is to ensure that individuals under his supervision properly reflect the transformative nature of super intelligent capabilities and the numerous opportunities these technologies can provide. Furthermore, in the executive order, President Trump argues that “the term ‘super intelligence’ more appropriately captures the promise, potential and rapidly advancing capabilities of these technologies.”
