Trump’s AI Renaming Push Drives Surge in Slovenian Domain Registrations

Summary

Donald Trump’s proposal to stop using “artificial intelligence” and adopt “super intelligence”, or “SI”, may have helped drive an unprecedented rise in Slovenian web-domain registrations. Register.si spokeswoman Klara Herman said 44,000 .si addresses were registered in September, compared with fewer than 2,000 in August, an increase of more than 2,100%. She said the late-September activity was clearly exceptional compared with the previous 12 months, including 11,000 registrations on 30 September alone. Trump promoted the new terminology in a 11 September speech to the United Nations General Assembly, arguing that “artificial” makes the technology sound fake. He later signed an executive order directing US government agencies to use “SI” and “Super Intelligence” in official correspondence, websites, reports and other communications. Herman cautioned that Trump’s remarks could not be identified as the sole cause of the increase. Another possible explanation is speculative domain investing, in which people register names they hope will gain value and later be sold. The article distinguishes this legitimate investment activity from an earlier, corrected reference to cybersquatting.