Big Tech is finally playing nice to stop AI agents from breaking the internet
The Linux Foundation just dropped the Agentic AI Foundation to keep our future AI assistants from turning into a chaotic, unorganized mess.
- neuralshyam
- 6 min read
If you’ve spent more than five minutes on tech Twitter lately, you’ve probably heard the word “Agentic” about four thousand times. It’s the new favorite buzzword for everyone trying to convince you that AI is moving past being a simple chatbot and into something that can actually, you know, do things.
But here’s the reality: right now, AI agents are a bit of a dumpster fire. They’re amazing in demos, but in the real world? They’re unorganized, they don’t talk to each other, and they have a weird habit of doing things they definitely shouldn’t.
Thankfully, the adults have finally entered the room. At the Open Source Summit in Tokyo, the Linux Foundation basically stood up and said, “Okay, enough chaos.” They just launched the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), and weirdly enough, all the big rivals—OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Block—are actually working together for once.
Why do we even need this anyway
Think about how your phone works. You can download an app from basically anywhere, and it (usually) knows how to use your camera or send a notification. That’s because there are standards.
AI agents currently have zero standards. An “agent” is basically just a piece of software that can plan, use tools, and make decisions on your behalf. Sounds cool, right? Until you realize that every company is building their agents in their own little walled gardens. If you use an agent from Company A, it won’t talk to the tools from Company B. It’s like having a bunch of remote controls that only work for one specific button on your TV.
The AAIF is trying to fix that by creating a “universal language” for these agents. They want to make sure that as these things move from “cool experiment” to “actually running our businesses,” they aren’t a massive security risk or a tangled mess of proprietary code.
The janitor and the million dollar invoice
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: security. This is where things get spooky.
Right now, an AI agent often acts like you. If you give an agent access to your company’s accounting software to pay freelancers, that’s great—it saves you hours of boring work. But here’s the nightmare scenario: what if the system can’t tell the difference between you (the authorized user) and literally anyone else in the office?
Imagine a scenario where the office janitor—let’s call him Joe—finds out there’s an agent with “pay” permissions. Joe hops on a terminal and casually asks the agent to send a cool million dollars to his husband’s bank account. Without a standardized way to handle identity, permissions, and “who is allowed to do what,” that agent might just say, “Sure thing, Joe!” and hit send.
That’s not just a “whoops” moment; that’s a “shut down the company” moment. The AAIF is trying to build the guardrails so agents don’t accidentally become the world’s most efficient bank robbers.
The secret sauce of the AAIF
So, how are they actually going to do this? They aren’t just writing a strongly worded letter. They’re actually building a shared software stack. Instead of starting from scratch, three major companies basically “donated” their homework to the foundation so everyone can use it.
- Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP): This is basically a universal translator. It allows different AI models to connect to data and tools without having to rewrite the code every single time.
- OpenAI’s AGENTS.md: This sounds boring, but it’s actually super important. It’s a standard way to describe what an agent can and can’t do. It’s like a job description that the AI can actually read and follow.
- Block’s Goose: This is a coding agent that actually works. It’s the “real world” example of how all these rules and protocols should be used in a live environment.
By putting these into a neutral, open-source home, we ensure that no single company owns the “brain” of the agentic future. It’s a rare moment where Big Tech realizes that if they don’t play nice, the whole industry might just collapse under its own complexity.
Getting out of the walled garden
One of the biggest wins here for us—the developers and users—is avoiding “vendor lock-in.”
Have you ever tried to switch from an iPhone to an Android (or vice versa) and realized half your stuff doesn’t move over? That’s what the AI world looks like right now. If you build your entire business around one specific provider’s agent stack, you’re stuck. If they raise their prices or their service goes down, you’re toast.
The AAIF is pushing for “interoperability.” That’s a fancy way of saying they want you to be able to swap parts out. Don’t like one model? Swap it for another. Want to use a different security tool? Go for it. It keeps the market competitive and, honestly, keeps companies from becoming too greedy.
Is this actually going to work
Look, I’m usually the first person to roll my eyes when a new “foundation” is announced. Usually, it’s just a bunch of corporate suits talking about “synergy” in a Marriott conference room.
But this feels different. Having the Linux Foundation—the people who basically keep the internet running—behind it gives it a lot of street cred. Plus, having rivals like Anthropic and OpenAI donating their actual code to the project is a huge signal. They know that AI agents are “moving fast and breaking things,” and they’d really like to stop the “breaking things” part before it gets out of hand.
In the short term, expect to see more developers using things like MCP to make their AI tools more useful. In the long term? This might be the reason why, in five years, your AI assistant can actually book your flights, pay your bills, and manage your calendar without you worrying it’s going to accidentally buy a fleet of jet skis with your retirement fund.
Final thoughts
We are moving into a world where AI doesn’t just talk—it acts. And while that’s incredibly exciting, it’s also a little terrifying. The launch of the Agentic AI Foundation is basically the tech industry’s way of admitting they need some rules.
It’s about making AI agents reliable, open, and—most importantly—predictable. Because at the end of the day, we want our AI to be a helpful sidekick, not a rogue agent causing digital havoc because someone forgot to set the permissions correctly.
So, here’s to the AAIF. May your protocols be standard and your agents never pay the janitor a million dollars.
Stay curious, stay skeptical, and maybe don’t give your AI agents your credit card info just yet. Wait for the standards to kick in first.