Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Joins Known Advisory Council
Wheeler brings decades of technology policy and regulatory leadership to Known’s mission to establish open
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BELLEVUE, Wash., Nov. 12, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Known, a company building accountability infrastructure for autonomous AI, today welcomed Tom Wheeler, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to its Advisory Council. 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, leading landmark initiatives that established common rules across the communications industry. His tenure included the adoption of net neutrality rules designed to ensure equal treatment of internet traffic across broadband providers. He also oversaw efforts to modernize the nation’s 911 infrastructure, including nationwide requirements for text-to-911 service and new standards to improve emergency caller location accuracy. These initiatives required coordinating competing providers, regulators and public agencies around shared technical requirements.
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 and CEO of both the National Cable Television Association and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. He is also the author of several books exploring the relationship between technology and society, including TECHLASH: Who Makes the Rules in the Digital Gilded Age?
“AI presents another defining moment in the evolution of our digital infrastructure,” said Wheeler. “As autonomous systems take on greater responsibility, we need to establish the infrastructure that provides clear accountability for their actions. Regulators, standards bodies and enterprises can work together to establish that common foundation. Known has assembled an extraordinary team around a clear vision for how to get there, and I’m thrilled to be part of it.”
Known is advancing DNSid, an open, neutral approach that gives AI agents persistent, independently verifiable identities tied to the organizations responsible for them.
DNSid is built on the Domain Name System (DNS), the internet’s existing global naming infrastructure. It is designed to establish a persistent, independently verifiable link between AI agents and the organizations accountable for them, complementing existing security controls rather than replacing them.
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.
About Known
Known is building accountability infrastructure for autonomous AI. As AI agents increasingly operate across organizational boundaries, Known is advancing DNSid, an open, neutral, DNS-based approach designed to make accountability interoperable at Internet scale. Known is working with industry and government to develop this approach through open standards. For more information, visit www.knownsystems.ai and www.DNSid.ai.
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