[palmotea]

> Is "A.I." NYT house style? Looks rather jarring.

I think their style is to use periods for acronyms, which I believe is traditional. A quick scan of their recent headlines turns up "U.S", "A.I.", "A.T.M.", "ICE", "L.P.G.A.", "REI", "U.K." I don't know what the reasoning behind the use of "ICE" and "REI" is, could be a mistake or a judgement that those words are tend to not be understood as acronyms, or something else.

[0xffff2]

IIRC they used to always style "NASA" as "N.A.S.A." even though the agency itself never uses periods and is of course always pronounced as a word rather than initials. (This particular example stuck in my mind just because I work there). Hopefully "ICE" and "REI" reflect a change in that style to omit periods when referring to organizations that omit the periods in their own style guides.

[rekenaut]

I don’t think this has been true for the vast majority of NASA’s existence. [This 1966 NYT article about Gemini](https://www.nytimes.com/1966/03/20/archives/gemini-8-mishap-...), [this 1986 article about Challenger](https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/22/us/nasa-had-solution-to-k...), and [this 2010 article about Constellation](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/science/space/27nasa.html) all omit periods. Even if NYT did stylize it as “N.A.S.A.” in its earliest articles, this would not diverge from common agency practice early on. For instance, in [this official reel about the dedication of Marshall Space Flight Center](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fasslw4MvE), it is pronounced spelled-out as four letters.

[lucaslazarus]

Looks to me like initialisms get periods unless they are acronyms or trademarks. So "ICE" is fine because it is read as "ice" and not I.C.E. (eye-see-ee). REI is not an initialism though, but presumably they have kept it as-is because it's their trademark/"doing business as" style.

[hopelite]

That is correct and also how everyone else should be using the English language.

The “REI” initialism, is the official d.b.a. for the Recreational Equipment, Inc. company.

[lucaslazarus]

Erratum: I meant to say that REI is an initialism but not an acronym