AI.com website crashes during Super Bowl, netizens quip — ‘how to burn $10M’

A 30-second AI.com advertisement during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 60 drove traffic to such levels that it crashed the website entirely. AI.com officially launched during the Super Bowl on Sunday, 8 February (local time).

Kris Marszalek, co-founder and CEO of AI.com and Crypto.com, responded to the crash on X, saying, “Insane traffic levels. We prepared for scale, but not for THIS.” Marszalek added three fire emojis to the statement.

‘Top tier comedy’

Several social media users took to X to share their grievances about being unable to create an account on AI.com. Many posted images of the ‘503’ error message displayed before them on the website.

“How to burn $10M, by http://ai.com,” a user wrote on X. Another called it a “top tier comedy [sic].”

Another user quipped, “Ai.com spends $5M for Super Bowl commercial. But didn’t bother to let DevOps know.”

What is AI.com?

AI.com is a consumer AI platform that lets users create autonomous AI agents to perform tasks on their behalf. It is the “most powerful AI assistant,” the company claims.

The platform allows people to personalise their AI agent — “claim your name on ai.com and deploy your personal AI agent,” the website said.

“Your http://ai.com agent will act like your own fully functional PC. Instead of just chatting, your http://ai.com agent can actually DO things for you,” the information posted by the AI platform’s X account read.

“Set up your AI agent. Name it, provision it, and start your first task,” it added.

To explain further, AI.com’s Marszalek said, “…if you have a ton of followers on X and your ai.com handle is taken, you will be able to ask your agent to connect your X account later and once verified, you will get your handle unlocked.”

Who owns the website, and how much did they spend to acquire the domain?

Marszalek owns AI.com. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com. A Financial Times report claimed he acquired the AI.com domain name for about $70 million, making it the largest publicly disclosed domain name sale to date.

How a 30-second ad crashed during the Super Bowl

According to Adweek, the crash happened during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 60 when AI.com aired a 30-second ad imploring viewers to create a personal handle on its website.

At that point, all the traffic from the commercial crashed the website, with viewers airing their grievances on social media.

Is the AI.com website back?

Yes. Once the website came back online, users could sign up to create a personal AI agent that would operate on their behalf, including “organizing work, sending messages, executing actions across apps, building projects, and more,” Adweek reported.