Back in the 1980s when the internet was still in its infancy, countries were being handed their own unique website addresses to navigate this nascent new online world. Such as .us for the US or .uk for the UK.

Eventually, almost every country and territory had a domain based on either its English or own language name. This included the small Caribbean island of Anguilla, which landed the address .ai.

Unbeknownst to Anguilla at the time, this would become a future jackpot.

With the continuing boom in artificial intelligence (AI), more and more companies and individuals are paying Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory, to register new websites with the .ai tag.

Such as US tech boss Dharmesh Shah, who earlier this year spent a reported $700,000 (£519,000) on the address you.ai.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Shah says he purchased it because he had "an idea for an AI product that would allow people to create digital versions of themselves that could do specific tasks on their behalf".

The number of .ai websites has increased more than 10-fold in the past five years, and has doubled in the past 12 months alone, according to a website that tracks domain name registrations.

The challenge for Anguilla, which has a population of just 16,000 people, is how to harness this lucrative bit of luck and turn it into a long-term and sustainable source of income.

Similar to other small Caribbean islands, Anguilla's economy is built on a bedrock of tourism. Recently, it's been attracting visitors in the luxury travel market, particularly from the US.

Anguilla's statistics department says there was a record number of visitors to the island last year, with........

© BBC