President Donald Trump’s campaign to rename artificial intelligence appears to be driving a massive, unexpected increase in the registration of website domain names using Slovenia’s.si suffix. According to Register.si, the nation’s official registry, the spike in activity has been described as unprecedented compared to the previous year of operations. According to she, The scale of activity in late September was “unprecedented” compared to the previous 12 months.
Data provided by the registry shows that 44,000 web addresses with the.si extension were registered throughout September. This represents a staggering rise of more than 2,100% when compared to the fewer than 2,000 registrations processed in August. Specifically, on September 30 alone, the registry recorded 11,000 new site acquisitions.
Klara Herman, a spokeswoman for Register.si, noted that while the September figures clearly outpaced the rest of the year, the office remains cautious about attributing the entire surge exclusively to the president’s recent rhetoric. A common practice in the domain industry is speculative purchasing, where individuals buy web addresses in hopes they will appreciate in value. Historically, investors like Rick Schwartz, known as ‘The Domain King,’ have seen significant returns, such as purchasing men.com for $15,000 in 1997 and selling it for $1.32 million seven years later.
The controversy stems from Mr. Trump’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly on September 11, where he argued that the word ‘artificial’ makes the technology sound fake. He introduced the term ‘super intelligence,’ or ‘SI,’ as his preferred replacement, asserting that the technology is actually amazing. Building on this, the president held a meeting on Tuesday with top technology executives to discuss what he termed an ‘extraordinary gathering’ of leaders ‘building America’s Golden Age.’
Following these comments, an executive order was signed directing all US government agencies and departments to cease using the term AI. Under the new mandate, ‘SI’ and ‘Super Intelligence’ are to be used in all official correspondence, reports, and digital communications. However, the order faced online criticism after observers noticed that the phrase ‘United States’ was misspelled on the document underneath the president’s signature. The US president wants AI to be called “super intelligence” – or SI – the same initials used by Slovenian websites. But we have to be careful… welcome to the new world of super intelligence.
