The tiny Caribbean nation of Anguilla has found a lucrative side business by encouraging artificial intelligence (AI) companies to use the country’s “.ai” domain code for their websites.
Officials in Anguilla, a British overseas territory about 230 miles east of Puerto Rico, are boasting that the tiny island’s revenues have “exponentially” increased after selling domain registrations to overseas technology companies.
Anguilla’s Minister of Tourism and Infrastructure, Hayden Hughes, told Fox Business that the country Granted .ai domain code Received from the International Telecommunication Union in 1995.
“There were no computers in Anguilla at that time. Anguilla in 1995 had no modern technology whatsoever, no email addresses, no internet, so artificial intelligence was very far removed from our cerebral cortex,” Hughes explained.
“As time went on, I realised the potential of this administration that I am in, even though it is still very young,” he told media. “We have tech-savvy ministers, so we have been able to monetise this and it has been great for the island, investing in a significant amount of physical and social infrastructure.”
In 2021, there were roughly 100,000 .ai domains registered, but by 2023, that number had skyrocketed to 354,000 following the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other popular AI programs.
Officials say domain registrations accounted for 4% of Anguilla’s government revenue in 2019, but are set to grow to more than 20% by 2023.
This will bring revenues in 2023 to approximately $32 million.
“The emergence of artificial intelligence has made .ai very attractive and our revenue generation from .ai has grown exponentially,” Hughes said.
The minister said the money will go a long way in an island with a population of just 15,000. Some of the increased revenue is being earmarked for elderly care programs and the national public school system.
“One of the really great things is that people who have never heard of Anguilla are now aware of it,” Hughes added. “And especially those who are coming to Anguilla to check out this .ai thing are so amazed by our hospitality, our restaurants, our hotels, our villas, all the services we have to offer.”
Anguilla is not the only small country to experience this phenomenon; the South Pacific island of Tuvalu also make of Estimated at $10 million per year The company terminated its lease on the .tv domain code with web hosting company GoDaddy.
