AGENTS

1
AGENTS

• Seely-Brown, John.(2000) Agents and Angels
• Vision agents will be the nervous tissue of a
  world brain.
• Powerpoint template Communicating bad news

2
Our Situation

• State the bad newsGates says Bots will develop
  personality.Bots will drive our cars monitor
  behavior. Bots dont negotiate. They tear the
  social fabric, destabilize markets in pursuit
  of immediate goals.
• Be clear, dont try to obscure the situationYou
  are wetwear. (Seely-Brown).

3
How Did This Happen?

• Product Brokering BotsAmerican Airlines
  SAABRE Amazon endorsements. Functional
  autonomy lt-- Law of least effort opacity of
  decisions.
• Taken to the Dark Side byStandardizationProfit
  maximization (Holloway, 1997, Pattie)
• AND THESE WERE THE GOOD BOTS!

4
More - How Did This Happen?

• These were INTERFACE agents, rather than
  AUTONOMOUS agents (Lieberman, 1997),Petrie,
  1996).
• Now, all Bots are AUTONOMOUS INTERFACE agents, in
  some sense. E.g., Letizia, Webwatcher, Lira, The
  Remembrance Agent (see BotSpot). All can be
  corrupted.
• More important good v malicious Bots.

5
More-How Did This Happen?

• Anonymous remailersMisleading
  messagesSpamIdentity theftCancelbots erasing
  messages
• Commercial competition
• A HUMAN problem Seely-Brown, Lieberman, but --
  Bots raise the stakes dramatically.

6
Alternatives Considered

• Further questionable developmentLearning bots
  (e.g., negotiating bots).Goal rule shifting
  bots (weighing factors).
• Bot interaction --gt unpredictable
  resultsBillions of Bots (IBM, site removed).
• Further improvementResponsibility/liability
  shifted to users (Maes).Transparent
  decisions.Encryption (a never-ending game).

7
Recommendation or Decision

• Dont worry. It CANT happen. at least, not
  for a LONG time by which time we will have
  safeguards and programmers will become moral
  unless the Bots learn to program themselves
  Uh, wheres that power plug?
• Worry. Invoke the safeguards.Norman (2002) How
  Might People Interact with Agents?

8
Our Vision for the Future

• Bots will proliferate sensing, storing,
  transmitting, weighing, and acting.
• When the number of Bots reaches critical mass,
  the World Brain will develop self awareness.
• We may be prepared for this,
• But probably not.

9
Summary

• Key points to remember that will give audience
  confidence or improve moraleHumans are working
  on this, busily making Bots to control
  Bots.Bots are working on this, busily making
  Bots to control Humans.We havent lost such a
  race, yet.