A small Caribbean island that wins thanks to artificial intelligence

Anguilla Island is a British dependency located in the Caribbean, 240 km east of Puerto Rico and 113 km northwest of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Its area is 91 square kilometers and the population is about 15,000 people. It is of volcanic origin, its relief is relatively flat, with a maximum height of 65 meters above sea level. The coast is lined with white sand beaches and crystal clear waters. The climate is tropical, the average temperature ranges from 25 to 30 degrees Celsius. The rainy season lasts from June to November.

Anguilla’s economy is based on tourism, banking and fishing. The island is a popular destination for tourists looking for white sand beaches, crystal clear waters and a lively nightlife.

However, something could add dollars to this island’s tax coffers as it could earn $30 million from the boom in AI thanks to its unique Internet domain, according to Bloomberg.

This means that anyone who wants to get their hands on a URL ending in “.ai” has to get it from the Anguilla government.

Vince Keith, a software developer who has managed the domain on behalf of the territory since the 1990s, told Bloomberg that total .ai registrations have nearly doubled in the last year to 287,432.

He added that “it’s different here” since the public launch of ChatGPT last November. And while there was a big spike in popularity from December to March, popularity has stabilized since then, according to Bloomberg.

According to the latest UN data, Anguilla’s annual GDP in 2021 was $288 million. This means that an .ai domain could be worth about 10% of its total national product.

Tuvalu example

Anguilla is not unique: Something similar happened to Tuvalu, a Pacific island nation of 11,000 that has also benefited from its own country code.

Their “.tv” domain is used by various video-focused websites such as Twitch. In 2019, Tuvalu earned $7.1 million from domain rentals, which is about 8% of total government revenue.