Artificial intelligence (AI) is all anyone seems to be talking about lately, so of course, everyone has been snapping up .ai domain names. But the .AI extension or TLD (top-level domain) actually belongs to the country of Anguilla, which apparently has decided that they aren’t cool with porn companies using it.

And as of yesterday, they started cutting off any porn websites they found using .AI. This, of course, came as a big shock to sites like Porn Pen, who overnight was shut down and had to register a new domain. They opted for .art, but it wasn’t like they had much of a choice.

When a government or company owns a domain extension, it can dictate who can and can’t use it and what it can and can’t be used for. And in this case, they are not cool allowing people to generate AI porn with their country’s domain name.

Anguilla is a small island territory located in the Caribbean Sea, east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, known for its beautiful beaches and luxurious resorts. It is a British Overseas Territory, which means that it is a self-governing territory under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom.

Years ago, every country was assigned a domain name extension (or top-level domain TLD), such as .de for Germany, .jp for Japan, or .ae for the United Arab Emirates.

Sometimes a country’s TLD spells out something of relevance like with .TV, which belongs to Tuvalu. By allowing anyone to use it, that country makes money o domain name registration fees. In some cases, it can be really good money, especially if the particular country in question is rather small and poor.

The little country of Tokelau comes to mind. They use their .TK to make money that builds the country’s infrastructure. The tiny island nation covers about 3.9 square miles. Tokelau has increased its GDP by more than 10% through registrations of domain names under its top-level domain, .tk.

So lesson here is, be careful when registering a domain name and always have a backup if you pick a unique TLD because you never know what’s going to happen.