Vint Cerf Just Mapped the Internet's Future—and Phase 4 Is Already Here

The co-inventor of the Internet just published a roadmap for where connectivity goes next, and it's not incremental—it's exponential. In a new article for IEEE Spectrum, Dr. Vinton Cerf (Google's Chief Internet Evangelist and literal co-creator of the Internet with Robert Kahn) and Dr. Mallik Tatipamula (CTO at Ericsson Silicon Valley) outline seven phases of the Internet. We've already passed through three. We're currently in the fourth. And the next three—coming faster than you think—will fundamentally reshape what "connectivity" means.

According to their IEEE Spectrum piece, the Internet isn't sequential—it's additive. Each phase builds on the last, layering new capabilities without replacing what came before. We went from connecting computers (Phase 1) to mobile devices (Phase 2) to all devices via IoT (Phase 3). Now we're entering Phase 4: The Internet of AI Agents—where intelligence itself becomes networked, autonomous, and collaborative.

And that's just the warmup. Phases 5 through 7—the Internet of Senses, Ubiquitous Internet, and Quantum Internet—aren't science fiction. They're infrastructure roadmaps. And the people building them aren't futurists. They're the engineers who built the first three phases.

When Vint Cerf tells you where the Internet is going, you listen. Because he's the one who invented it.

Phase 4: The Internet of AI Agents (We're Here Now)

Here's the shift that matters today: AI agents aren't passive endpoints. They're independent actors. Unlike IoT devices that transmit data, agents can perceive, reason, act, and collaborate. They don't just report information—they make decisions and execute tasks across digital and physical environments.

Cerf and Tatipamula break this into two categories:

1. Digital AI agents – Software-based entities like coding copilots, workflow orchestrators, trading algorithms, and digital assistants. They live in the digital world but shape real economies. Example: a coding copilot that doesn't just suggest code, but collaborates with other agents to debug, refactor, and optimize software in real time. No human intervention required.

2. Physical AI agents – Systems operating across digital and physical environments: autonomous vehicles, drones, industrial robots, medical devices. Example: a self-driving car using ISAC (Integrated Sensing and Communications) to detect its environment, avoid collisions, and coordinate with nearby vehicles and traffic systems in real time.

The key insight: value arises not from isolated intelligence, but from networked intelligence. Agents will communicate, collaborate, and coordinate in real time across networks—creating new forms of productivity, trust, and resilience. This isn't about individual AI tools getting smarter. It's about AI systems becoming a distributed, autonomous workforce operating at planetary scale.

Sound familiar? It should. Every major AI company—OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft—is building exactly this. Operator, Claude for Excel, Copilot Studio, Gemini integrations. These aren't features. They're Phase 4 infrastructure.

Phase 5: The Internet of Senses (Perception Becomes Networked)

If Phase 4 is about intelligence, Phase 5 is about perception. The Internet of Senses extends connectivity from exchanging information to exchanging experiences. Not just text, audio, and video—but touch, taste, smell.

Two dimensions define this phase:

1. Multisensory communication – Networks will carry signals for touch, taste, and smell through haptic wearables, digital olfaction, and brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). You'll "feel" the texture of clothing online before buying. Doctors will remotely examine patients using haptic gloves that transmit the sense of touch. Students will explore history through tactile and sensory experiences.

2. ISAC at the network level – Unlike Phase 4 where agents had their own sensors, in Phase 5 the network itself perceives. Programmable surfaces and meta-materials will shape signals, enabling motion detection, distance measurement, and localization as part of the communications system. Smart cities will detect traffic flow and crowd movement in real time, feeding environmental awareness directly into the network.

This makes connectivity immersive and context-aware, enriching how humans and machines interact. It's also the foundation for what Cerf and Tatipamula call "embodied intelligence in the physical world." Not AI that lives in the cloud, but AI that experiences the physical environment the way humans do.

If you think the Metaverse hype was premature, you're right. But Phase 5 is what the Metaverse was supposed to be—except built on actual infrastructure, not venture-funded demo reels.

Phase 6: The Ubiquitous Internet (Coverage Everywhere, Always)

Phase 6 addresses the infrastructure problem created by Phases 4 and 5: if billions of AI agents and sensory systems are online, seamless coverage becomes critical. The Ubiquitous Internet integrates terrestrial and non-terrestrial infrastructure—cellular networks, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, fiber, satellites, high-altitude platforms—into one unified global network.

This means connectivity everywhere: remote villages, open oceans, skies, orbit, cislunar space, and beyond. Not "eventually." Not "aspirationally." But as a technical requirement for AI agents and sensory systems to operate globally without borders.

This is why SpaceX is launching Starlink satellites faster than anyone can count. Why Amazon is building Project Kuiper. Why every major telecom is investing in satellite integration. Ubiquitous coverage isn't a luxury anymore—it's the foundation for Phase 4 and 5 to actually work.

The article is explicit: the Ubiquitous Internet "will underpin the next advances in autonomy, perception, and intelligence, enabling AI agents and human users alike to operate without borders." Translation: without Phase 6, Phases 4 and 5 fail. You can't have networked AI agents if the network has gaps. You can't have sensory experiences if connectivity drops. This isn't optional infrastructure. It's existential.

Phase 7: The Quantum Internet (Intelligence Embedded in Physics)

The final phase is the Quantum Internet, where quantum communication, networking, sensing, and computing converge. Unlike the classical Internet (which transmits bits), the Quantum Internet distributes qubits through entanglement and teleportation, enabling capabilities beyond anything conventional systems can achieve.

Early demonstrations are already showing potential:

• Ultra-secure communication channels resistant to interception (because quantum states collapse when observed)
• Quantum sensors achieving unprecedented precision in measuring time, motion, and environment
• Quantum networking interconnecting distributed quantum processors into one planetary-scale connected computer system

The article's most striking claim: "The Quantum Internet will not replace the classical Internet but augment it, overlaying quantum signals with classical bits." Just as AI agents put intelligence in motion, the Quantum Internet will supercharge that intelligence by embedding it with the laws of physics at the smallest scales.

Expect integrated quantum AI systems to accelerate drug discovery, optimize supply chains, and solve problems that are computationally impossible today. This isn't speculative. IBM, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are already building quantum computing infrastructure. The Quantum Internet is the networking layer that makes those systems useful at scale.

What This Means for Everyone Not Inventing the Internet

If you're in marketing, business, or any knowledge work field, here's your takeaway: the infrastructure being built today will define what's possible in five years. Phase 4 is already here—AI agents are operational. Phases 5, 6, and 7 are coming faster than the gap between Phases 1, 2, and 3.

The companies that win won't just adopt AI tools. They'll understand the infrastructure layers those tools depend on. Connectivity isn't the foundation anymore—connectivity is intelligence. The article's closing line is explicit: "In the age of AI, connectivity is not merely the foundation. It is increasingly intelligence itself."

That's not metaphor. That's architecture. And it's being built by the same people who built the Internet you're using right now.

Want to build a strategy that accounts for where infrastructure is actually headed—not just where hype says it's going? Let's talk. Because the next three phases aren't coming. They're already under construction.