The U.S. Census Bureau and “Super Intelligence”

Why it matters

The author revisited an AI adoption chart originally produced by Apollo Global Management, which drew on the U.S. Census Bureau's Business Trends and Outlook Survey, and discovered that the survey's wording has been overhauled twice in just over a year. The Bureau first broadened its question from asking whether businesses used AI in producing goods or services to asking about use in any business function, making responses before and after that change incomparable. Then, following an executive order, the survey's latest collection replaced all references to Artificial Intelligence with "Super Intelligence or SI," including rewritten examples like generative SI and virtual SI agents. The author's updated chart shows large companies' affirmative answers rising substantially over the past year, though the earlier question change complicates any trend reading. The piece matters because the survey is a widely watched gauge of corporate technology adoption, and terminology shifts driven by policy could muddy the data further. The first results under the new SI wording are due for publication imminently, making this a useful baseline for comparison.