Anguilla, a Caribbean island that controls the .ai internet domain, says President Donald Trump’s effort to rename artificial intelligence “super intelligence” hasn’t hurt its business, Politico reported on Thursday.
Much of the island’s income depends on people registering .ai websites, so the rebrand sparked worry. But technology minister José Vanterpool said at a press conference on Monday that sales rose in September from August, after the announcements, and said there’s been no meaningful shift away from .ai.
He called it “highly unlikely” that companies would switch domains over the president’s remarks, and said part of the uptick likely reflects speculation.
Trump pushed the idea in a September 22 U.N. address and made it official with an executive order on September 29. On October 8, he posted on Truth Social that anyone who says “Artificial Intelligence” is “THE ENEMY!”
Another domain did see a jump. Slovenia owns .si, and registrations there reportedly surged to 44,000 in September from just 2,000 in August, with 11,000 on September 30 alone, according to the BBC. Ironically, Slovenia happens to be the home country of Trump’s wife Melania.
Anguilla’s premier, Cora Richardson-Hodge, said domain income hit 244 million East Caribbean dollars (about $90 million) over the year through August, around 91 percent of the annual forecast. That money largely feeds a sovereign wealth fund meant to cushion shocks like hurricanes. Vanterpool said revenues should roughly double in 2027 as .ai expands to 32 internationalized domain names, and told residents there’s “no basis for unnecessary alarm.”
Trump’s “super intelligence” rebrand has mostly been met with indifference and skepticism by the tech industry, because “superintelligence” already has a distinct meaning in the AI industry, for a hypothetical model that is more intelligent than a human.
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