Agents are an empirical cluster that share certain properties such as learning and planning to steer towards narrow targets. I don’t think there is a natural sharp definition. I’d prefer to discuss the agent-like (safety-relevant) properties of particular algorithms and instantiations, rather than categorize edge cases.
But for fun,
A very weak agent, or not an agent, not strongly opinionated.
Yes
The agent frame seems unlikely to be useful here, since a cell membrane performs multiple loosely coupled functions which only make sense in the context of the e coli.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
If its software is any good, yes
Yes
The frame is sometimes useful and sometimes not.
Yes
Yes
No
There is no 16th element of the list
The frame is almost never useful and often misleading.
Yes
Sort of. It is a very general learning algorithm and (in itself) not a long term planning algorithm, more on the level of the thermometer. Though in a sense it contains agents.
How do you define an agent?
Which of the following entities are agents; if they are agents, what kind?:
a thermostat
2. a rocket actively steered by a Kalman filter
3. the membrane of an e. Coli
4. nematode worm
5. An ant swarm
6. a dog
7. a human
8. a human that is alert and focused
9. Amazon, the company
10. A humanoid robot
11. A robot arm
12. the United Kingdom
13. Claude 4.2
14. Claude 4.2 being called by an ‘agentic workflow’ app.
15. the process of Evolution by natural selection
17. all of humanity over the last thousand years.
18. AIXI
19. a Solomonoff inductor
20. A logical inductor
21. a Szilard engine, i.e. Maxwell demon
22. etc
Agents are an empirical cluster that share certain properties such as learning and planning to steer towards narrow targets. I don’t think there is a natural sharp definition. I’d prefer to discuss the agent-like (safety-relevant) properties of particular algorithms and instantiations, rather than categorize edge cases.
But for fun,
A very weak agent, or not an agent, not strongly opinionated.
Yes
The agent frame seems unlikely to be useful here, since a cell membrane performs multiple loosely coupled functions which only make sense in the context of the e coli.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
If its software is any good, yes
Yes
The frame is sometimes useful and sometimes not.
Yes
Yes
No
There is no 16th element of the list
The frame is almost never useful and often misleading.
Yes
Sort of. It is a very general learning algorithm and (in itself) not a long term planning algorithm, more on the level of the thermometer. Though in a sense it contains agents.
^
Sort of.
Type error