Session
Description:
For more than four decades, the Internet has demonstrated remarkable resilience through open standards, interoperability, distributed architectures and voluntary cooperation among technical, operational and policy communities. As societies become increasingly dependent on digital services, the Marconi Society Internet Resilience Institute has shown that Internet resilience is the foundation for creating justifiable trust in the digital society. Its Phase 1 work—the Life of a Packet Mapping Framework and the Business Resilience Guide—demonstrates that resilient digital services depend on understanding hidden technical, operational and organizational interdependencies and translating that understanding into practical implementation. The Internet is now entering a new phase of evolution. Originally designed to connect people, it is increasingly becoming an environment in which autonomous AI agents discover services, exchange information and make operational decisions on behalf of people and organisations. This fundamentally changes the requirements for Internet resilience and governance. Building on the outcomes of the WSIS Forum 2026 session Operationalizing Digital Resilience, this workshop explores how resilience principles can enable justifiable trust for both humans and AI through dependency mapping, operational best practices, trusted operational Internet intelligence and continuous verification. Through interactive 2035 scenarios, participants will examine how hidden interdependencies influence AI-assisted decisions in critical services and infrastructure. Discussions will address what information Internet operators should expose, how AI can distinguish resilient from fragile infrastructure, where accountability lies when AI acts on inaccurate operational data, and how organizations can safely delegate decisions to autonomous systems. Holding this discussion at IGF 2026 in Nairobi is particularly important. Africa's rapidly growing digital economy, mobile-first infrastructure and expanding AI ecosystem offer unique perspectives on resilience. Ensuring that diverse regional experiences and real-world failure scenarios inform future resilience frameworks is essential for creating globally relevant Internet governance and building justifiable trust in an Internet increasingly shared by humans and autonomous AI agents.
For more than four decades, the Internet has demonstrated remarkable resilience through open standards, interoperability, distributed architectures and voluntary cooperation among technical, operational and policy communities. As societies become increasingly dependent on digital services, the Marconi Society Internet Resilience Institute has shown that Internet resilience is the foundation for creating justifiable trust in the digital society. Its Phase 1 work—the Life of a Packet Mapping Framework and the Business Resilience Guide—demonstrates that resilient digital services depend on understanding hidden technical, operational and organizational interdependencies and translating that understanding into practical implementation. The Internet is now entering a new phase of evolution. Originally designed to connect people, it is increasingly becoming an environment in which autonomous AI agents discover services, exchange information and make operational decisions on behalf of people and organisations. This fundamentally changes the requirements for Internet resilience and governance. Building on the outcomes of the WSIS Forum 2026 session Operationalizing Digital Resilience, this workshop explores how resilience principles can enable justifiable trust for both humans and AI through dependency mapping, operational best practices, trusted operational Internet intelligence and continuous verification. Through interactive 2035 scenarios, participants will examine how hidden interdependencies influence AI-assisted decisions in critical services and infrastructure. Discussions will address what information Internet operators should expose, how AI can distinguish resilient from fragile infrastructure, where accountability lies when AI acts on inaccurate operational data, and how organizations can safely delegate decisions to autonomous systems. Holding this discussion at IGF 2026 in Nairobi is particularly important. Africa's rapidly growing digital economy, mobile-first infrastructure and expanding AI ecosystem offer unique perspectives on resilience. Ensuring that diverse regional experiences and real-world failure scenarios inform future resilience frameworks is essential for creating globally relevant Internet governance and building justifiable trust in an Internet increasingly shared by humans and autonomous AI agents.
Policy Question(s)
1. How should Internet governance evolve as autonomous AI agents become operational participants on the open Internet rather than simply users of Internet services?
2. What technical, operational and policy mechanisms are needed to enable humans and autonomous AI agents to establish justifiable trust before acting on Internet-derived information?
3. What operational Internet information should be made available—in a secure, privacy-preserving and interoperable manner—to enable autonomous systems to assess the trustworthiness of sources, infrastructure and dependencies without compromising security or privacy?
Expected Outcomes
The workshop will produce:
• Candidate principles for Justifiable Trust applicable to both humans and autonomous AI agents.
• Recommendations on operational Internet information that AI systems require for trustworthy decision-making.
• Community input to Phase 2 of the Marconi Society Internet Resilience Institute's Life of a Packet and Business Resilience Guide initiatives.
• Recommendations for future standards, operational practices and Internet governance discussions.
• A public workshop report.
Participants will gain practical insight into how Internet resilience principles apply to AI agents operating on the open Internet. Building on the WSIS outcomes, the workshop will identify how dependency mapping, organizational resilience, operational transparency and trusted machine-consumable Internet intelligence can strengthen future Internet governance. Community feedback will directly inform the Internet Resilience Institute's Phase 2 activities and contribute to ongoing discussions on AI governance, Internet architecture and implementation of the Global Digital Compact.
Format
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: The roundtable format moves participants beyond discussion into collaborative problem-solving. Following a short introduction to the Marconi Society Internet Resilience Institute's work and the outcomes of the WSIS Forum 2026 session Operationalizing Digital Resilience, participants will work through two or three realistic 2035 resilience scenarios involving autonomous AI agents operating during cloud outages, DNS anomalies, routing incidents or supply-chain disruptions. Rather than discussing resilience in the abstract, participants will explore how hidden interdependencies affect decision-making, what operational information AI agents and human operators need to establish justifiable trust, and which governance, technical and organizational measures are required to strengthen resilience. Candidate scenarios include a hospital whose apparent infrastructure redundancy masks shared dependencies, and a supply chain where hidden common services undermine resilience. A third scenario, reflecting African digital realities, will be developed with regional stakeholders to ensure local relevance while contributing to globally applicable resilience principles.
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: The roundtable format moves participants beyond discussion into collaborative problem-solving. Following a short introduction to the Marconi Society Internet Resilience Institute's work and the outcomes of the WSIS Forum 2026 session Operationalizing Digital Resilience, participants will work through two or three realistic 2035 resilience scenarios involving autonomous AI agents operating during cloud outages, DNS anomalies, routing incidents or supply-chain disruptions. Rather than discussing resilience in the abstract, participants will explore how hidden interdependencies affect decision-making, what operational information AI agents and human operators need to establish justifiable trust, and which governance, technical and organizational measures are required to strengthen resilience. Candidate scenarios include a hospital whose apparent infrastructure redundancy masks shared dependencies, and a supply chain where hidden common services undermine resilience. A third scenario, reflecting African digital realities, will be developed with regional stakeholders to ensure local relevance while contributing to globally applicable resilience principles.
Hybrid Format: The workshop will use a dual-moderation model, combining an experienced on-site moderator with a dedicated online moderator to ensure balanced participation. On-site participants will use room microphones, while remote participants will engage through the virtual platform's hand-raising and chat functions, actively managed by the online moderator.
To maximize interaction, both audiences will participate simultaneously in live digital polling during the 2035 resilience scenarios. Participants will assume the role of an AI agent faced with incomplete operational information and decide whether to proceed, pause, seek additional evidence or escalate to human oversight in situations such as DNS anomalies, routing incidents or cloud disruptions. The aggregated responses will be displayed in real time and used to drive the moderated discussion on resilience, hidden interdependencies and justifiable trust, ensuring equal participation regardless of location while generating practical insights for future Internet governance and resilient AI deployment.
Organizer 1: Maarten Botterman, 🔒GNKS Consult BV
Organizer 2: Marina Pappas Marina Pappas, Marconi Society
Organizer 3: Flora Tromelin, Marconi Society
Organizer 2: Marina Pappas Marina Pappas, Marconi Society
Organizer 3: Flora Tromelin, Marconi Society
Speaker 1: Maarten Botterman, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Raneem Zaitoun, Private Sector, Eastern European Group
Speaker 3: Philippe Fouquart, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Ram Mohan, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 5: Vinton CERF, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Raneem Zaitoun, Private Sector, Eastern European Group
Speaker 3: Philippe Fouquart, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 4: Ram Mohan, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 5: Vinton CERF, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Moderator
Maarten Botterman, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Online Moderator
Marina Pappas Marina Pappas, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Rapporteur
Flora Tromelin, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
What will participants gain from attending this session?
