Identity Digital Spins Out Known Systems AI to Make AI Agents Accountable

Known was formed from Identity Digital's AI agent identity initiative, which started earlier this year under the name Innovation Labs. That group released an open, neural framework for accountable AI identities called DNSid, described by the company as a kind of "birth certificate for AI agents."

DNSid is built on the Domain Name System, public key infrastructure and an immutable blockchain ledger, according to Identity Digital. Under the framework, an AI agent receives a persistent identity linked to the company that created it, so that entity can be held responsible for the agent's actions. The design lets agents interact with third-party platforms and systems without having to establish a trusted relationship with each one individually.

Identity Digital argues this matters because AI agents are spreading across the web and growing more capable. Organizations and individuals are already using agents to autonomously initiate financial transactions, move information and act across organizational boundaries with little human involvement. Existing identity and access management tools can authenticate agents and govern what they are permitted to do inside a given environment, but they do not establish who is accountable for an agent's actions as it moves between platforms and systems.

Agents can form bilateral trust relationships, but doing so at enterprise scale is impractical: many businesses already run thousands of agents, and maintaining individual trusted links with multiple third parties for each one is not feasible. Identity Digital says what is needed is a shared accountability layer that works across platforms and organizations.

As a standalone business, Known will try to advance DNSid as an open standard for agent identification and build tools that organizations need to scale accountability. It has already submitted an Internet-Draft to the Internet Engineering Task Force and is working with the Linux Foundation through the Agentic AI Foundation and LF Decentralized Trust, according to the company, which also claims a number of enterprise customers and relationships with policymakers in the U.S. government.

Identity Digital Chief Executive Akram Atallah said the initiative's progress was constrained by its ties to its former parent, which is why it was separated into an independent company. "We reached a point where keeping this work inside Identity Digital would limit its potential," he said. "Agent accountability needs to work across companies, platforms and ecosystems. Known now has the independence [it needs] to work across the market and build the broad participation required for shared infrastructure to succeed."

Identity Digital will keep close ties to Known. It is one of the new company's largest investors and will hold a seat on its board of directors. Ethos Capital, the primary owner of Identity Digital, will also back Known, and Ethos partner Allie Kline will serve as interim CEO while leading the search for a permanent chief executive.

"AI agents will not scale without accountability," Kline said. "As agents begin transacting, exchanging information and operating across organizational boundaries, accountability requires a consistent way to know who is responsible for them. That is essential to building the trust required for broader adoption."