Vint Cerf is now advising Innovation Labs, a subsidiary of Identity Digital (a DNS registry company), on creating open architecture for AI agents to identify themselves. Innovation Labs has proposed DNSid, a registry for agent identification that links each agent to an existing internet domain name and uses cryptographic proofs to log registrations over time. The company sees domain-name infrastructure as a practical way to hold AI agents accountable in a future where more online interactions happen between agents than people.
The initiative addresses a key roadblock: the lack of shared standards for identifying and auditing AI agents across the open internet. Most AI agents today stay within proprietary systems for specific purposes, but businesses envision them operating autonomously across the internet and interacting directly with other agents. Innovation Labs' interim CEO Allie Kline says the company is trialing the standard with several unnamed hyperscalers and identity companies.
Cerf highlighted fundamental questions the effort must resolve, including what authority AI agents have, where those authorities are derived, who is accountable for agent behavior, and how identity is established and trusted. He noted that AI agents are far more active than domains, and it's unclear what commitment organizations make when registering one. Cerf emphasized that wide adoption of any protocol will depend on its functionality, drawing parallels to how TCP/IP succeeded through user pressure rather than top-down mandates.