Audience: General. No technical knowledge assumed.
AI systems are starting to move between platforms and make decisions autonomously. Right now there is no standardized way to track where they have been or verify their history. A compromised or banned AI agent can move to a new platform with no trace.
This is not a new problem. Every time a new class of entity enters regulated space, the same pattern emerges:
Shipping manifests (1700s): goods crossing borders needed standardized records
Professional licensing (1800s): doctors and lawyers needed portable credentials
Vehicle registration (1900s): cars needed traceable identity and history
Domain registration (1990s): internet hosts needed verifiable identity
AI agent registration (2020s): autonomous software agents need the same
EXIT Protocol is an open standard for cryptographic departure and arrival records for AI agents. When an agent leaves a platform, it gets a signed record (~660 bytes). When it arrives somewhere new, that record can be verified. Think of it as passport stamps.