5.8 KiB
IGF 2026 WS #174 Who Is That Agent? Trusted AI Agent Identity via the DNS
Description
The rapid proliferation of autonomous AI agents—software entities capable of taking actions, making decisions, and interacting with services and other agents on behalf of users—presents an urgent and largely unresolved challenge: how do we know who, or what, an agent really is?
Without a trusted, open, and scalable identity layer, the agentic internet risks being overwhelmed by impersonation, fraud, and accountability gaps. This roundtable explores how the Domain Name System (DNS), the internet's foundational and universally deployed naming infrastructure, can serve as that identity layer.
Emerging open standards—including the Agent Name Service (ANS) being developed by GoDaddy and others, and DNS-AID (DNS for AI Discovery)—demonstrate that agent identity, verification, and discovery can be anchored to domain names that operators already own and control. These approaches leverage proven technologies: DNS, DNSSEC, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI/X.509), and DANE, rather than building new centralized registries or proprietary ecosystems.
This session will bring together technical, policy, and industry stakeholders to interrogate the governance and policy dimensions of this approach: Who governs the namespace? How do domain registries and registrars play a role? What accountability mechanisms are needed? How does this interact with existing identity frameworks such as DIDs and LEIs? And how do we ensure this layer remains open, interoperable, and resistant to capture?
Participants will leave with a shared understanding of the technical landscape, key governance gaps, and actionable next steps for multistakeholder engagement.
Policy Question(s)
Standards fragmentation vs. interoperability: Multiple DNS-based agent identity standards are currently under development (ANS, DNS-AID, DNSid, etc.). What policy mechanisms and multi-stakeholder coordination processes can ensure these converge on open, interoperable, and vendor-neutral outcomes?
Accountability and liability in agentic transactions: When an AI agent causes harm—financial, reputational, or otherwise—how does a DNS-anchored identity framework support attribution, liability assignment, and recourse for affected parties?
Agent namespace governance: If AI agent identity is anchored to DNS and domain names, what governance frameworks—across registries, registrars, ICANN, and national regulators—are needed to ensure accountability, prevent abuse, and protect the openness of this layer?
Expected Outcomes
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Mapped the current landscape of DNS-based agent identity standards and initiatives (ANS, DNS-AID, DNSid) and identified key points of convergence and divergence.
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Identified concrete governance gaps at the intersection of DNS infrastructure governance (ICANN, registries, registrars) and the emerging agentic web.
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Produced a set of recommendations (captured in a session summary/report) for multi-stakeholder bodies—including the IGF, IETF, ICANN, and national regulators—on priorities for open, interoperable, and accountable AI agent identity infrastructure.
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Advanced multi-stakeholder dialogue between the technical community, private sector, civil society, and governments on the policy dimensions of agentic internet infrastructure.
Reference Document
Reference Document
Format
Roundtable Duration (minutes): 60 Format description: This session directly addresses the IGF 2026 overarching theme, "Governing the Internet in the Age of Intelligence: Our Shared Responsibility", by examining one of the most foundational—and most overlooked—governance questions of the agentic AI era: how autonomous agents are identified, verified, and held accountable across the open internet. Speakers selected for the session exemplify the IGF & Multistakeholder Ecosystem, including geographically diverse Technical Community, Government, and Civil Society stakeholders.
The Roundtable format will allow speakers to share their expertise, while encouraging collaborative and engaging feedback from diverse IGF participants during the session.
Hybrid Format
Hybrid Format: GoDaddy and DotAsia (.Asia) have extensive experience facilitating and organizing hybrid meetings, including the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF). The session will have traditional A/V set up on-site, including Zoom participation and any IGF platform tools.
Hybrid Engagement Strategy:
- A designated online moderator will monitor the virtual queue and relay questions from remote participants.
- Key discussion prompts will be displayed on screen and shared in the session chat to enable meaningful online participation.
- A collaborative notes document (e.g., Google Doc or Etherpad) will be open to all participants, onsite and remote, throughout the session.
Organizers
Organizer 1: Edmon Chung, 🔒DotAsia Organizer 2: Evin Erdogdu, DotAsia Organisation Organizer 3: Heineman Ashley, 🔒
Speakers
Speaker 1: Edmon Chung, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group Speaker 2: Jared Sine, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG) Speaker 3: Wei Chen, Technical Community, Western European and Others Group (WEOG) Speaker 4: Wan Sie LEE, Government, Asia-Pacific Group Speaker 5: Sally Wentworth, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Moderator
Edmon Chung, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
Online Moderator
Evin Erdogdu, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
Rapporteur
Evin Erdogdu, Technical Community, Asia-Pacific Group
Participant Benefits
What will participants gain from attending this session?
SDGs
- Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
- Responsible Production and Consumption
- Partnerships for the Goals