Simple AI agents can be taught to reply to standard questions sent over email.
More advanced ones can book airline and hotel tickets for transcontinental business trips.
In a sense, you are an agent.
You take actions in your world every day in response to things that you see, hear and feel.
But what exactly is an AI agent?
Rules and goals
A smart thermostat is an example of a very simple agent.
Its ability to perceive its environment is limited to a thermometer that tells it the temperature.
A familiar predecessor to today’s AI agents is the Roomba.
Then it takes action based on that information.
After a few minutes, the carpet is clean.
The smart thermostat is an example of what AI researchers call a simple reflex agent.
A goal-based agent is successful merely by achieving its goal through whatever means are required.
They weigh the risks and benefits of each possible approach before deciding how to proceed.
They go beyond goal-based agents by selecting actions that consider their users' unique preferences.
The AI systems that people use today are considerednarrow AI or “weak” AI.
Worth the risks?
Are AI agents poised to revolutionize the way humans work?
Are you OK taking these risks if it means that agents can save you some work?
What happens when AI agents make a poor choice, or a choice that its user would disagree with?
Like any other AI system, an AI agent is subject to biases.
