OpenAI moves on agent auth

OpenAI has joined the FIDO Alliance, putting the ChatGPT maker inside the industry group writing passwordless login standards as AI agents start acting on users’ behalf. (biometricupdate.com) FIDO Alliance said its mission is to reduce reliance on passwords through open authentication standards such as passkeys, which let a device verify a user without sharing a reusable password. OpenAI joined the alliance’s board and said it plans to take part in work on authentication for “agentic intelligence.” (fidoalliance.org, biometricupdate.com) That work is aimed at a new identity problem: software agents that can browse, buy, code or message need a way to prove who authorized them and what they are allowed to do. FIDO said at its Authenticate 2025 conference that it had already launched a subgroup on agentic commerce to secure human-authorized agents. (fidoalliance.org, biometricupdate.com) OpenAI is making a parallel packaging move with Codex, its coding agent inside ChatGPT. An OpenAI help article updated in April says Codex is included with ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu plans. (help.openai.com) OpenAI also changed how teams pay for Codex this month. The company said on April 2 that ChatGPT Business got a new Codex-only seat, Business subscription seats were cut by $5 per month, and Codex pricing shifted to token-based usage for Plus, Pro, Business and new Enterprise plans. (help.openai.com, help.openai.com, openai.com) Those changes put identity and product packaging on the same track. If companies are going to let agents write code, connect to apps and take actions inside workspaces, they also need clearer controls over sign-in, authorization and billing. (openai.com, help.openai.com, biometricupdate.com) The standards fight is already pulling in payments and identity vendors. FIDO’s site highlighted Mastercard’s April push for an open standard to verify AI-agent transactions, a sign that banks, device makers and software companies are converging on the same problem. (fidoalliance.org) OpenAI’s move does not mean a finished standard exists today. It means one of the biggest AI companies is now inside the room where passkeys and the next layer of agent authentication rules are being drafted. (fidoalliance.org, biometricupdate.com)