AI-themed names dominate ICANN's new top-level domain applications
in plain words
ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers The nonprofit that coordinates the global DNS and gTLD policy. Full definition of ICANN is the organization that controls the endings of web addresses, like .com or .org. It just revealed a huge batch of applications for new endings, and most of the popular ones are about artificial intelligence, such as .agent and .agi. Big tech companies like Meta and OpenAI applied for many of these, plus their own branded endings like .chatgpt or .facebook. Nothing becomes official until sometime next year.
ICANN has released its latest batch of applications for new top-level domains, the suffixes that appear at the end of web addresses after names like .com or .org. The organization reported 1,615 applications from 481 applicant An organization that has applied to ICANN to run a new gTLD. Full definition of applicant, and artificial intelligence terms dominate the list. Ten companies, including Meta and OpenAI, applied for .agent, while seven applicants, including OpenAI, want .agi. Six companies, also including OpenAI, applied for .asi, a string widely read as a nod to president Donald Trump's preference for the term “super intelligence” over “artificial intelligence.” Four applicants want .intelligence, and Meta is one of two that applied for .superintelligence. OpenAI alone applied for 15 different top-level domains, while Meta applied for 21.
The applications fall into two broad categories. Generic strings, meant for wide public use, make up hundreds of the submissions, ranging from .geek and .anime to .jackpot and .itiswhatitis. Branded strings, reserved for a single company's own use, account for 345 applications, including .applebees, .bankofamerica, .zillow and .zoom. Meta applied for .facebook, .instagram, .messenger, .meta, .frommeta and .threads. Bluesky applied for .bsky, reportedly intending to incorporate it into usernames. OpenAI sought .chatgpt, .codex, .openai and .gpt, among others, and Anthropic applied for .anthropic and .claude.
Past rounds of alternative top-level domains have had mixed success: .ai and .app gained some traction through tech trends, but domains such as .restaurant or .babysitting never caught on widely, leaving .com as dominant as ever. The large number of companies now pursuing their own branded domains stands out, since previously only a small number of firms, including Google, had done so.
This release of applications marks an early step in a lengthy process, and no new domains will become official before sometime next year.