> 101domain.com is likely doing a manual process for registering .ai domain names that goes through https://whois.ai/
Gandi seems to do this as well. I recently tried to buy one through them and they quoted $600, and required a corporate subscription. 101domains had the same one for a little over $100, which implied to me that there's a paper process with people somewhere and each registrar is pricing accordingly (since all .ai are $100/2yr flat).
Good timing on your comment, too, since buying-then-transferring seemed like a good strategy until I read it. Didn't realize .ai was so fundamentally manual. Although[0]:
> We expect that about mid 2017 we will support EPP and other registrars.
Gandi seems to do this as well. I recently tried to buy one through them and they quoted $600, and required a corporate subscription. 101domains had the same one for a little over $100, which implied to me that there's a paper process with people somewhere and each registrar is pricing accordingly (since all .ai are $100/2yr flat).
Good timing on your comment, too, since buying-then-transferring seemed like a good strategy until I read it. Didn't realize .ai was so fundamentally manual. Although[0]:
> We expect that about mid 2017 we will support EPP and other registrars.
[0]: https://whois.ai/faq.html