Trump’s AI Rebrand Sparks Surge in Slovenian Domain Registrations

President Donald Trump’s call for the United States government to rename artificial intelligence (AI) as “Super Intelligence” (SI) has launched a wave of activity on the internet that surprised authorities in Slovenia.

According to the country’s national registry register.si, 44,000 new web addresses with the .si suffix were registered in September – a rise that represents more than a 2,100% jump over the roughly 1,800 domains registered in August.

The surge peaked on 30 September, when 11,000 new .si names were added in a single day, an activity the registrar described as “unprecedented” compared with the previous 12 months.

Klara Herman, spokesperson for register.si, suggested that part of the increase could be driven by the coincidence that the new label – SI – matches the initials of many .si domain names. She cautioned, however, that other factors such as cyber‑squatting – the practice of registering domains in anticipation of future resale value – could also be at play.

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on 11 September, Trump declared that the term “artificial” sounded “fake” and that the field was “super intelligence.” He called on corporate leaders to help build what he described as America’s new Golden Age.

That same week, a U.S. executive order was signed instructing federal agencies to replace the term AI with SI in all official correspondence, reports, and websites. The order was quickly spotlighted on social media, especially after a post revealed a spelling error in the signature line, where “United States” was written incorrectly.

The rapid uptake of .si domains and the high profile of Trump’s renaming push illustrate how even abstract policy shifts can echo in seemingly unrelated corners of the internet.