.ai

ccTLD
Type:	ccTLD
Status:	Active
Country:	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Introduced:	February 16, 1995
Manager:	Government of Anguilla
Registry:	Zenaida
Website:	[zenaida.cate.ai zenaida.cate.ai]

.ai is the ccTLD of Anguilla, a British overseas territory. It is managed by the Government of Anguilla. The domain registry platform is Zenaida.Cate.ai, or simply Zenaida. The IANA website points to whois.ai, which indicates that Zenaida is the website for .ai registrations.

Rules and Restrictions

The usage must not violate the laws of Anguilla. In particular, fraud is against the law. For example, any domain that is trying to trick users into thinking they are at another website so they will enter their user name and password is committing fraud.

Grounds for suspending or revoking a domain:

• porn that would be illegal in Anguilla, like child porn, revenge porn, etc.;
• violating copyrights;
• hate speech websites;
• phishing;
• has logos or trademarks from a company when they are not affiliated with that company;
• dishonesty (making false representations for financial gain);
• any site promising to help people get rich quick for a fee;
• anything looking like a pyramid scheme, ponzi, or multi-level-marketing site (mlm);
• doing any of the following without an Anguilla license to be a bank, broker, public company, ICO, exchange, or gambling site:
  • holding client deposits;
  • managing investments for clients;
  • executing trades for clients;
  • offering guaranteed returns of any rate;
  • asking for investors;
  • offering trading or exchange services for stock, bond, crypto or other similar markets;
  • any kind of gambling;
  • any site for attacking other sites, like DDOS or other

Also,

• any sites on a list of scam sites and sites reported by reputable domain monitoring agencies will be suspended;
• if the owner of the site has done any of the above with previous domains (even non .ai domains) we can disable a current domain;
• if a site says something like "trusted by" or "in partnership with" and has trademarked logos for other companies and one of those companies says this is not true, the whole site comes down;
• if it is decided that a site has violated any of the above the domain will be suspended. Even if the registrant promises to modify the content, the domain will not be enabled.

Second-level Domains

Zenaida offers registrations under ".org.ai", ".com.ai", ".net.ai", and ".off.ai".

Characters

Letters from "a" to "z", digits from "0" to "9", and "-". Domains can not start or end with "-" and can not have more than one "-" in a row.

Usage and Name Speculation

The .ai domain has become a sought-after asset for artificial intelligence (AI) startups and tech entrepreneurs. This association has emerged because "AI" doubles as an abbreviation for Artificial Intelligence, giving the domain an instant appeal to businesses in the sector, and it gained popularity among startups and branding experts. The value of .ai domains has skyrocketed, mainly fueled by the post-ChatGPT boom, with registrations spiking significantly since late 2022.

The domain's rising appeal can be attributed to the scarcity and cost of short, memorable .com domains, which are often monopolized by investors and speculators. In contrast, .ai domains offer a more accessible alternative, allowing startups to reflect their AI-focused branding while projecting credibility and relevance in their field. However, this trend is not universal among major AI leaders. Companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon have been reserving .ai domains defensively to prevent misuse but typically maintain their primary web presence on .com domains. For some businesses, adopting a .ai domain may serve more as a marketing tactic than a necessity.

Auctions of expired domains are held periodically at auctions.whois.ai. As of November 2021, expert.ai was the most expensive AI domain ever sold in history. Sedo brokered and mediated the selling of this domain in June 2020. It was sold at the price of €95,000 or $2.9 million.

Impact on Anguilla's Economy

The government of Anguilla collects the registration fee, and it directly goes into its treasury. According to a report published by New York Times, a total of $2.9 million in revenue has been generated through registrations.

According to Forbes, in an article published in January 2024, quoting Vince Cate, manager of domain registrations for the Anguillan government, "in the five months after (the arrival of ChatGPT in November 2022) our sales went up by almost a factor of four. Then they sort of leveled off at this new, much higher level. It’s just wild—we’re already like a third of the government’s budget.” Also, Cate mentions his hope for the future of .ai: "We do the domains for two years, and so all of our money now is new domains. And if we just stay at this level of $3 million per month for new domains, when the renewals kick in a year from now, we’ll just jump to $6 million per month."

Country code top-level domain, as determined by "ISO 3166: Country Codes".

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority