Tech Giants Compete for Top-Level Domains! AI Becomes the Hot Trend in the New Round of Applications

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently announced the results of the latest round of top-level domain applications, with a total of 1,615 applications received from 481 applicants around the world. In this wave of applications, AI-related domains became the core focus of competition among tech giants.

Among them, companies such as Meta and OpenAI actively competed for the .agent domain, while domains such as .agi, .asi, and .superintelligence also attracted many major companies to submit applications. To further enhance brand recognition, OpenAI submitted 15 top-level domain applications, while Meta submitted 21 applications.

Companies are building brand domains, but official activation still needs to wait

In addition to domains for general markets, this round of applications also included 345 enterprise brand-specific domains. These include .facebook and .meta applied by Meta, .chatgpt applied by OpenAI, and .claude applied by Anthropic. These exclusive domains can be directly used for product pages and official services in the future.

Although technology companies have significantly increased their attention to the domain name system, submitting an application is only the first step. ICANN stated that the top-level domain applications submitted in this round will not take effect earlier than next year, and the related review and approval processes will continue to proceed.

Google Adjusts Gemini Subscription Strategy: Free Version Will Only Retain Flash-Lite Starting October 9, Paid Tiers Further Distinguish

Google updated its support page announcing that starting October 9, it will adjust the access and usage restrictions for personal account Gemini, tightening the configuration of lower-tier user models. Free users will only be able to access Gemini 3.5 - Flash-Lite, losing access to Gemini 3.6 Flash and newer models; the $4.99 AI Plus tier is limited to Flash and Flash-Lite, no longer supporting advanced reasoning models like Gemini 3.1 Pro. This adjustment does not affect the $19.99 monthly plan.

Anthropic Launches Claude Haiku 5.5! Price Drops 90% but Faces Hidden Costs

Anthropic launched the lightweight model Claude Haiku 5.5 as part of the Claude 5.5 series. For regular requests within 100,000 tokens, the cost for input and output per million tokens has dropped to $0.10 and $0.50 respectively, a 90% reduction from the previous version's listed price. The model offers the fastest response time, focusing on high concurrency, low latency, and high cost-effectiveness, making it suitable for high-frequency tasks such as real-time customer service, summary extraction, and data classification. It also introduces adaptive thinking features for the first time.

Microsoft Releases MAI Code1.1 Flash Model, GitHub Copilot Will Support Local and Cloud Hybrid Inference

Microsoft announced on October 7, 2026, during the Windows and Surface launch event that it will introduce local AI model support for GitHub Copilot by the end of this month, allowing developers to switch freely or automatically schedule between cloud and device-side models. To address memory bottlenecks in edge-side inference and resource consumption for long contexts, Microsoft has introduced the MAI Code1.1 Flash hybrid expert model, which has a total of 137 billion parameters and 6.8 billion activated parameters. Combined with quantization and speculative decoding, it reduces memory usage and improves inference efficiency.

Walmart Issues a Ban on AI Posters in Stores: Signs Generated by ChatGPT Are Not Allowed to Be Displayed

According to Business Insider, Walmart explicitly prohibited stores from displaying any signs created by AI tools on the 29th to block AI junk content. Walmart has always required that signs be designed and printed by the company, and this move further tightens the rules, banning even AI-generated versions. Posters must still be approved by the headquarters. The report states that the ban targets frontline managers who use AI to save costs, which may harm the brand.

McKinsey: About 11 Million Americans May Lose Jobs or Change Careers Within Ten Years Due to AI - The Real Challenge Is Where to Go

McKinsey released an AI and employment report on September 29, stating that the most severe issue is not machines taking jobs, but how to resettle millions of people forced to change careers. By 2035, about 11 million American workers may need to change careers due to AI, accounting for about 7% of the labor force; in the past, about 215,000 Americans changed careers each year, and this number may triple in the future. Low-income individuals are nearly eight times more likely to be affected than high-income individuals, making career transitions a heavy burden.