Asymmetric Agents

One of the promises of the AI-filled future is that we'll all have highly capable autonomous servants "agents" to work for us.

Even back in the 1990s, it was a common trope in future-gazing to insist that a person's personal slave agent would negotiate on their behalf. Ask your meek digital pal agent to find you a restuarant in town, tonight, for a hot date, catering to your dietary preferences, and within your budget. The little butler agent scurries off and, without your intervention, finds the perfect place, negotiates with the restaurant's house boy agent and books you a slap up meal.

Marvellous! You can tell your manservant agent to buy you clothes, reserve a flight, do the grocery shopping, or buy your wife flowers without having to lift a finger.

But, of course, there's a fly in the ointment. Not all valets agents are created equally. You're sending your Rasperry Pi powered peon agent against the full might of Amazon's bazillion datacentres.

Can a low-complexity serf agent be bullied, outwitted, and manipulated by a more capable henchman agent? It seems obvious to me that the answer is yes. Humans have a set of cognitive biases which render us susceptible to advertising tricks. AI may have different biases but will still be vulnerable to hypnosis and hacking.

Perhaps having my secretary agent negotiate with your PA agent to find a suitable meeting time for our Q2 KPI Deep Dive doesn't carry this sort of risk. But I'm sure that scumbags advertisers everywhere will be salivating at the thought of waylaying my innocent footman agent on its way to market.

A future where we delegate responsibility to stochastic imbeciles agents is one where we accept that we have no control over their susceptibility to more powerful and malevolent thugs agents.