BELLEVUE, Wash.—Tom Wheeler, who chaired the Federal Communications Commission during the second Obama administration, has joined the advisory council of artificial intelligence firm Known Systems.
Known is developing technology to help businesses identify autonomous AI agents and establish which organizations are responsible for them. The company is advancing DNSid, which it calls an open, platform-neutral approach that gives AI agents persistent, independently verifiable identities.
Wheeler served as FCC chair from 2013 to 2017 and is best known for advancing the agency’s February 2015 decision to reclassify broadband internet service as a telecommunications service under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act, which gave it the authority to impose stronger protections against blocking, throttling and paid prioritization. Those rules were later rescinded in 2017 under Ajit Pai, the Republican FCC chair during the first Trump administration.
“AI presents another defining moment in the evolution of our digital infrastructure,” Wheeler said. “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.”
Wheeler is currently a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, where he focuses on technology policy and governance. Prior to the FCC, he was president and CEO of the then-National Cable Television Association and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.
“Tom has spent his career bringing industry and government together to establish the common rules and infrastructure that allow transformative technologies to flourish,” Known Interim CEO Allie Kline said. “Known is advancing the open infrastructure that makes verifiable accountability possible, and Tom’s leadership will help drive our continued growth.”
Other members of the Known Advisory Council include Vint Cerf, a pioneering developer of the early internet; Vinh Ngueyn, former chief responsible AI officer at the National Security Agency; Teresa Shea, former NSA signals intelligence director; Paul Sagan, former Akamai CEO; and Edna Conway, a former Microsoft and Cisco Systems security executive.
