**[Mastercard Launches AI Payment Protocol "Agent Pay for AI," Enabling Direct Payments Between AI Agents]** Odaily Planet Daily News – Mastercard has announced the launch of a new payment protocol called *Agent Pay for AI*, designed to enable artificial intelligence agents (AI agents) to more conveniently make small payments to each other, such as pay-as-you-go fees for accessing website data. Mastercard Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert stated that this project will not become a major revenue source in the short term but is expected to evolve into a scalable market within the next five years. He also predicted that AI chatbots will eventually play a significant role in e-commerce transactions and could give rise to an ecosystem of payments between bots. Reportedly, the protocol uses blockchain to record the operational permissions granted by humans to AI agents, ensuring that the agents execute tasks as instructed. Initially, Mastercard has chosen to store this permissions data on the Ethereum-based Polygon network. Other companies involved in developing the protocol include fintech firm Adyen, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and web hosting giant Cloudflare. *(Source: Fortune)*