Tomer Jordi Chaffer (McGill U Law) has posted “On the Institutional Origins of the Agentic Web” (Harvard Journal of Law and Technology Digest, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents are emerging as autonomous delegates that act, decide, and transact on users’ behalf across digital environments. Their rise marks a turning point for internet governance: will authority over these agents be defined by proprietary platform rules or by open protocols that enable portable identity, verifiable delegation, and accountable behavior? The recent Amazon–Perplexity dispute illustrates this institutional crossroads. If platforms prevail, agentic action will remain confined within walled gardens; if protocols do, authority may shift toward interoperable infrastructures that allow agents to act as true extensions of the user. Ultimately, the question is not whether the agentic web will be governed—but who will govern it, and on what terms. This commentary situates that question within a broader exploration of institutional design, protocol governance, and the emerging duty of care that will define accountability in an era of autonomous systems.