ICANN has opened its first round of new top-level domain applications in years, and the results are heavily weighted toward AI. The organisation announced 1,615 applications from 481 applicants, covering the suffixes that sit at the end of web addresses.
The AI-themed strings drew multiple bidders. Ten companies, among them Meta and OpenAI, applied for .agent, and seven, including OpenAI, applied for .agi. Six sought .asi, a nod to President Trump's push to replace "artificial intelligence" with "super intelligence." Four applied for .intelligence, and two want .superintelligence, Meta among them. OpenAI submitted 15 applications in total; Meta submitted 21.
The applications fall into two broad groups. Hundreds are generic strings such as .geek, .anime and .jackpot. Another 345 are brand domains. Meta applied for .facebook, .instagram, .messenger, .meta, .frommeta and .threads; OpenAI for .chatgpt, .codex, .openai and .gpt, among others; Anthropic for .anthropic and .claude. Bluesky applied for .bsky, apparently intending to fold the domain into its usernames. Such strings could serve as product pages or social handles.
Alternate domains have had a difficult run. A few, like .ai and .app, gained ground from tech trends, but most never became habit, and .com has only grown more entrenched. This round is one step in a long process, with no decisions expected before sometime next year. The reporting here comes from a single source, The Verge.