Web being remade for AI Agents
Hi Enclosed is a recent article by Edd Gent for IEEE Spectrum As AI becomes more pervasive its changing how people access information on the Internet. This is called the " Agentic Web" whereupon the primary users are AI actors rather than humans What is the impact on the Domain Name System? How will it impact ICANN? Etc page 1 a1.bmp <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M4TTvIHbfg1HKfbB-rJ1neMu33tN15VN/view?usp=d...> page 2 ai.bmp <https://drive.google.com/file/d/15fjIGQHlJgLSl_ZmKSy5KeIi69FLn4oQ/view?usp=d...> page 3 ai.bmp <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GRTqRV2eZJ8snuSrP6l3R-lssJqNNEn1/view?usp=d...> Glenn McKnight, MA Virtual School of Internet Governance Chief Information Officer www.virtualsig.org *YOUR SOURCE FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE EDUCATION * *Mobile 437-237-4655* <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_camp...> Virus-free.www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_camp...> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
👍 Zulqar reacted via Gmail <https://www.google.com/gmail/about/?utm_source=gmail-in-product&utm_medium=e...> On Wed, Nov 19, 2025, 2:20 PM Glenn McKnight <mcknight.glenn@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Enclosed is a recent article by Edd Gent for IEEE Spectrum As AI becomes more pervasive its changing how people access information on the Internet. This is called the " Agentic Web" whereupon the primary users are AI actors rather than humans
What is the impact on the Domain Name System? How will it impact ICANN? Etc page 1 a1.bmp <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M4TTvIHbfg1HKfbB-rJ1neMu33tN15VN/view?usp=d...> page 2 ai.bmp <https://drive.google.com/file/d/15fjIGQHlJgLSl_ZmKSy5KeIi69FLn4oQ/view?usp=d...> page 3 ai.bmp <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GRTqRV2eZJ8snuSrP6l3R-lssJqNNEn1/view?usp=d...>
Glenn McKnight, MA Virtual School of Internet Governance Chief Information Officer www.virtualsig.org *YOUR SOURCE FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE EDUCATION * *Mobile 437-237-4655*
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On Wed, Nov 19, 2025 at 2:53 PM Glenn McKnight via NA-Discuss < na-discuss@icann.org> wrote:
re AI actors rather than humans
What is the impact on the Domain Name System? How will it impact ICANN?
The answer is as straightforward as it is obvious. AI harvesting bots gain nothing from "memorable" domain names, and computer-generated URLs don't care whether they're dictionary words, IP addresses, or gibberish. Thus, Internet addresses that target bots can (and will increasingly) use http://randomcharacters.cheapestTLD or randomcharacters.COM and be just fine IOW: your investment in a stable of speculative addresses, or a shiny new gTLD, is not increasing in value. They were already decreasing as people used search engines to find Internet destinations; now as search becomes supercharged by AI the need for human-readable (let alone "memorable") the need decreases by the day. Impact on ICANN: decreased revenue and status as the sugar daddy of Internet governance. - Evan
participants (3)
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Evan Leibovitch -
Glenn McKnight -
Zulqar Nayen