Vint Cerf Backs DNS-Based Standard to Give AI Agents Verifiable Identities on the Open Internet

Vint Cerf, one of the original architects of the internet's core protocols, is lending his expertise to a new effort that could define how AI agents identify themselves online. After leaving Google last week, Cerf is now advising Innovation Labs, a subsidiary of domain registry company Identity Digital, on a proposed standard called DNSid.

The core idea is simple: link each AI agent to an existing internet domain name and use cryptographic proofs to log its registration over time. This creates a verifiable chain of identity and authority that any other agent or service can check. "I felt like I might be able to help them in a period of time when naming and identification is becoming increasingly important," Cerf told TechCrunch. He framed the challenge around fundamental questions: "What authorities they have, where they have derived those authorities, who is accountable for the behavior of an agent in this context, and where and how its identity is established, and why [you’d] trust it."

Today, most AI agents operate inside walled gardens — they call on internal APIs and don't need to identify themselves to the outside world. But as businesses envision agents that negotiate, transact, and collaborate across the open internet, the lack of a shared identification standard becomes a critical blocker. Multiple solutions are emerging, and Cerf argues that adoption will hinge on functionality: "Company X uses agent Y’s technology, and company A uses agent C’s technology, and then they don’t interwork with each other. Nobody can do everything that you might want every agent to do."

Innovation Labs is positioning DNSid as a neutral, vendor-agnostic layer. Interim CEO Allie Kline emphasized that the company does not plan to own or monetize the registration data — a deliberate choice to avoid the "organ rejection" that a hyperscaler-backed standard might face. The group is already trialing the standard with unnamed hyperscalers and identity companies.

Cerf compared the potential adoption path to the rise of TCP/IP, where user demand forced competing networks to interoperate. "We are fundamentally lazy creatures," he said. "If we find a way to have an agent do something for us, we’re very likely to choose to do that because [it’s] just easier."

The proposal raises thorny questions: What commitment does an organization make when it registers an agent? How do you revoke identity for a misbehaving agent? And can a DNS-based registry keep up with agents that spawn and terminate far faster than domains? These are the details that will determine whether DNSid becomes the glue for the agentic internet — or a footnote.