Industry News Digest: May 2024
- by Ilona K.
Table of contents
lcome to our monthly Industry News Digest. Explore new online trends, platform features and domain industry news to stay up to date. Here’s a summary for May 2024.
Andorra opens .ad national domain for registration worldwide
Andorra has decided to open its national domain zone ‘.ad’ to the world.
Andorra’s ccTLD (country code Top-Level Domain) is set to become the latest potential domain hack for the English-speaking world when the local registry liberalizes registration policies later this year.
Until now, .ad domains have only been available to residents of Andorra and were registered manually through the local trademark office. However, Andorra Telecom, the administrator of the .ad zone, has already implemented all necessary functions for automatic registration.
Starting in October 2024, .ad domains will be available to any registrant worldwide through an as-yet unpublished list of approved registrars. Wholesale prices of about €15 ($16) per year are expected to be generally available.
Prior to that, starting from May 22, trademark owners and those who wish to purchase a domain at a premium price will be able to sign up for priority registration.
Why should you care? The term ‘ad’ is an abbreviation for ’advertisement’. This makes the .ad zone appealing to a wide range of people. The new extension will enable those who want to create domain names to include the core focus of their business, instantly providing users with an understanding of the type of service they offer.
In general, there are more and more domain extensions appearing on the market. These extensions allow businesses to display the scope of their activities directly in the domain name or include in domain hacks. Some examples include .ai, .my, and, of course, .it.com.
Source: Domain Incite
New GPT-4o by OpenAI to generate text, images and audio
OpenAI has announced GPT-4o (Omni), a new version of their GPT-4 language model. It can accept voice, image, and text inputs, as well as generate outputs in the same formats.
GPT-4o combines all the capabilities into one model, processing audio inputs and outputs without losing any data. OpenAI describes it as a step towards more natural interactions between humans and machines, capable of responding to user inputs at the same speed as human-to-human conversations.
While GPT-4o will have new safety measures in place, it will only be available for text and image input and output at launch. Audio capabilities will be released for ChatGPT Plus and API users within a few weeks.
Why should you care? The advancement of artificial intelligence allows us to interact with it more quickly and easily, making the creation of various content more convenient. The advent of new models like GPT-4о has provided not only ordinary users but also professionals in various fields with a powerful tool to enhance and expedite their work. For instance, web designers are actively leveraging AI to elevate their designs, making them more engaging and appealing. Moreover, AI helps create website interfaces that are more user-friendly, improving the overall experience for website visitors.
Source: Search Engine Journal
Tech keywords top Afternic’s keyword report – again
For a few months now, ‘AI’ has featured high in Afternic’s keyword report, indicating the most popular keywords in domain names. It did so once again In March.
Overall, compared to the previous month, the top remains the same, with only five new keywords added: Florida, coin, tech, homes, and company. Traditionally popular IT-related keywords have been joined by everyday life terms like home, health, shop, and life.
Here is the updated top 20 list (the number in brackets represents the previous month’s rank):
- ai (2)
- my (1)
- group (5)
- home (4)
- bet (6)
- pro (14)
- solutions (8)
- club (18)
- health (9)
- services (13)
- your (7)
- Florida (nr)
- coin (nr)
- tech (nr)
- shop (11)
- new (15)
- life (19)
- it (3)
- homes (nr)
- company (nr)
Why should you care? Keywords are essential for creating a domain name that showcases your business focus and also ranks well in search engines. Therefore, it’s crucial to monitor reports to identify which keywords are popular and can help promote your domain effectively.
Source: Domain Name Wire
The AI act: EU sets world’s first set of rules for using AI
The European Union Council has approved the world’s first set of rules for using artificial intelligence (AI).
The document proposes creating a European framework for managing the risks associated with AI. It also introduces criteria for monitoring and evaluating compliance with these rules.
These rules are based on a risk-based approach. It means that the more harm AI can cause to society, the stricter the rules will be.
AI systems that pose only a minor risk will have very few transparency obligations. On the other hand, high-risk AI systems will need to meet several requirements and obligations to access the EU market. For this purpose, AI was divided into four levels of risk (the list goes from minimal or no risks to high risks):
- video games and spam filters,
- chatbots,
- use in transport, for making exams, recruitment, and granting of loans,
- behavioral manipulation and social scoring.
Fines for violating the AI Act will be based on a percentage of the offending company’s global annual turnover for the previous financial year. Alternatively, they will be a predetermined amount, whichever is greater.
The law aims to harmonize rules and create European standards for regulating AI. After being signed by the EU Council and the European Parliament, the document will be published in the official journal of the European Union.
Why should you care? Currently, there are no strict regulations in the AI industry, so unscrupulous companies or individuals can misuse the technology for illegal purposes such as stealing personal data or generating a person’s voice or appearance without their consent to deceive others. Of course, sometimes harm can be not intended, so this is also taken into account by dividing the AI into levels of risk. Each of them will correspond to different rules accordingly.
The AI Act aims to encourage the development and use of safe and lawful AI on the single market, while also respecting fundamental rules.
Source: Council of the European Union
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