Slovenia's .si domain registrations surge 2100% after Trump suggests AI name change

Slovenia's national domain registry, Register.si, reported a dramatic surge of over 2100% in .si domain registrations during September, compared to August. The registry recorded 44,000 new .si domains in September, a significant jump from fewer than 2,000 in the preceding month.

This unprecedented increase is largely attributed to U.S. President Donald Trump's suggestion at the UN in September to rename Artificial Intelligence (AI) to "Superintelligence" (SI). Trump argued that the term "artificial" might imply fakery, while "superintelligence" better reflects the technology's capabilities. Following his remarks, the U.S. administration issued an executive order for government agencies to use SI instead of AI.

However, a spokesperson for Register.si advised caution in attributing the entire surge solely to the presidential initiative. While September marked a record month for registrations, some of the increase may also be due to speculative domain investing, where individuals purchase domains anticipating future resale value.

On September 30 alone, 11,000 new .si domains were registered. While correlations between presidential statements and domain popularity have been observed before, the scale of this recent increase is noteworthy.