It’s a company “building accountability infrastructure for autonomous AI,” and it is welcoming a Chairman of the FCC during the second term of President Obama to its Advisory Council.
For Known, the arrival of Tom Wheeler “brings decades of experience navigating the intersection of technology, regulation, and the public interest as Known works to establish a shared foundation for AI agent accountability.”
Wheeler served as FCC Chairman from 2013 to 2017, and his tenure is best-remembered for his adoption of Title II broadband classification, achieving “net neutrality.” This was later erased by the Pai Commission, restored by the Rosenworcel Commission, and again terminated by the Carr Commission, becoming a partisan hot potato at the FCC.
Why Wheeler? Known explains, “As autonomous AI agents increasingly operate across organizational boundaries, policymakers and industry leaders must establish trust and accountability between independent systems. Wheeler’s experience uniting stakeholders around common rules for critical communications infrastructure brings valuable perspective to Known’s work to establish a shared foundation for AI agent identity and accountability.”
“Autonomous AI cannot scale without accountability. Organizations need to know who stands behind an agent and who is responsible for its actions, wherever it operates,” said Allie Kline, Interim CEO of Known. “Tom has spent his career bringing industry and government together to establish the common rules and infrastructure that allow transformative technologies to flourish. Known is advancing the open infrastructure that makes verifiable accountability possible, and Tom’s leadership will help drive our continued growth.”
Wheeler is currently a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, where his work focuses on technology policy and governance. Before joining the FCC, he served as President/CEO of both the National Cable Television Association and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.
Wheeler joins Known’s Advisory Council whose members include internet pioneer Vint Cerf, former NSA Chief Responsible AI Officer Vinh Nguyen, former NSA Signals Intelligence Director Teresa Shea, former Akamai CEO Paul Sagan and former Microsoft and Cisco security executive Edna Conway, among others.
