AI vs SI: Why "Super" Is Scarier Than "Artificial"
Notes from NamesCon Global 2026 in Miami
One of the best parts of a domain conference is dinner with friends. The other night in Miami at NamesCon Global (which was sharing space with CloudFest Americas), I was hanging out with some domainer buddies, and I was chatting with Nikul Sanghvi of HyperNames.co, an Internet Commerce Association board member. Since the White House wants everyone saying "Super Intelligence" instead of "Artificial Intelligence" now, and Slovenia's .si is suddenly a trendy TLD, is SI about to take over AI in people's minds - and in domain names?
I think it all comes down to just two words.
Artificial is under us, super is over us
"Artificial" just means we built it - so it feels like it's beneath us somehow. "Super" means it's above us. Picture a ladder, with us right in the middle:
- Super: above humans.
- Human: us.
- Artificial: made by humans, so below.
That's why AI feels pretty safe, and SI doesn't. Stuff we make is comforting. But something that outranks us? That's a little freaky, even if it's useful.
The White House sees it differently, though. Their big executive order from September 29th says the old term doesn't do the tech justice, and the new one sounds way more impressive. Maybe that's true if you're thinking big-picture. But researchers have called "superintelligence" the thing that goes way past human smarts for ages - that's the top rung on the ladder. I'm betting that, when left to their gut, most people still like the rung that's under them.
The Matrix, and S for Scary
The next day, I ran this ladder idea by Doron Vermaat - another domainer buddy and the principal behind Efty.com. He was on board, and told me he'd just rewatched The Matrix. The classic movie presents a possible post-AGI world. Spoiler: it's not exactly feel-good - the machines run everything, and people don't even realize it.
This morning I thought the S in SI might as well stand for Scary.
The investor math points the other way
Scary or not, .si is way cheaper, about $10 vs $75/yr. Plus, you can still grab good short names in .si, which you definitely can't say about .ai anymore.
Investors noticed. Slovenia's registry saw an explosion in .si signups in September. But fair warning - most of those are investors planning to flip the names. Not many actual companies are building on .si yet.
That's where my ladder comes into play for value. A domain is only worth what someone will pay for it, and end users pick names their customers actually like. If "super" freaks people out, startups might just stick with .ai, even if Washington is all about SI. If the new label catches on, today's .si prices could look like .ai did a decade ago. The low price makes it a tempting bet - but it's really just betting on a word, not any real demand (yet).
Meanwhile, on stage: AI needs names
Whatever we end up calling it, AI was everywhere at the conference - front and center or just in the background. Two sessions really stood out for domain folks.
Agents need names, too. GoDaddy's CEO, Aman Bhutani, used his NamesCon keynote to talk about what they're doing with ANS - the Agent Name Service. It's kind of like DNS for AI agents: each agent gets a name you can actually read, tied to a domain and a digital certificate, so you know who you're dealing with before doing anything serious, like a transaction. GoDaddy built it on top of DNS and PKI and handed it off to the Linux Foundation. Basically, if agents are going to do stuff and pay for us, their domain name is like their ID.
Infrastructure needs names, too. A panel with folks from CES, Google, and others agreed that as AI ramps up, we'll need more domain names - just like we'll need more data centers and physical stuff. Every new service, agent, and endpoint needs its own address.
Where that leaves us
It all comes together here: whatever you call it, this tech is making domain names more important, not less. The only real question is which two letters people will want after the dot.
One of my takeaways from Miami: .ai is the name people are chill with, .si is the one investors can still actually buy, and the space between them is basically the gap between "we built it" and "it's above us." I wouldn't bet against comfort, but I also wouldn't sleep on a cheap option - just in case Scary becomes Standard.
Thanks to Nikul and Doron for the conversations. That is what conferences are for.
Appraise.net/intel has been tracking the .si run: three-letter (LLL) .si names are gone, and we follow CVCV.si availability as it shrinks. Our appraisal engine reviews market movement in each TLD weekly, and it adjusted .si valuations weeks ago.