Harvard Business Review: “Can Al Agents Be Trusted?”

From Harvard Business Review:

But perhaps the most exciting future for agentic AI will come in the form of personal agents, which can take self-directed action on your behalf. These agents will act as your personal assistant, handling calendar management, performing directed research and analysis, finding, negotiating for, and purchasing goods and services, curating content and taking over basic communications, learning and optimizing themselves along the way.

The idea of personal AI agents goes back decades, but the technology finally appears ready for prime-time. Already, leading companies are offering prototype personal AI agents to their customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders, raising challenging business and technical questions. Most pointedly: Can AI agents be trusted to act in our best interests? Will they work exclusively for us, or will their loyalty be split between users, developers, advertisers, and service providers? And how will be know?

The article continues and is organized into the following sections:

 What Could Go Wrong?

• Vulnerability to Criminals
• Retail Manipulation by Marketers and Paid Influencers
• Preference for Sponsors and Advertisers
• Susceptibility to Misinformation

Bringing Together Legal, Market, and Technical Solutions

• Treat AI Agents as Fiduciaries
• Encourage Market Enforcement of AI Agent Independence
• Keep Decisions Local
• Getting Started

The article concludes:

Agentic AI technology holds tremendous promise for making life easier and better, not only for enterprises but for individuals as well. Still, users will not embrace AI agents unless they are confident the technology can be trusted, that there is both public and private oversight of agent behavior, and appropriate monitoring, reporting, and customization tools that are independent of the developers of the agents themselves.

Getting it right, as with any fiduciary relationship, will require a clear assignment of legal rights and responsibilities, supported by a robust market for insurance and other forms of third-party protection and enforcement tools. Industry groups, technology developers, consumer services companies, entrepreneurs, users, consumer advocates, and lawmakers must come together now to accelerate adoption of this key technology.

Learn More, Read the Complete Article (about 2100 words)

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