Autonomous Agent

An autonomous agent is an AI system that can complete complex tasks with minimal human intervention — setting its own sub-goals, making decisions at each step, using tools, and adapting when something doesn't work. Unlike AI tools that respond to single prompts, autonomous agents can run for extended periods, executing dozens or hundreds of steps independently. Current autonomous agents are impressive but imperfect: they work well for well-defined tasks with clear success criteria and struggle with open-ended tasks, novel situations, or processes that require significant judgment.

The degree of autonomy to grant an agent should be calibrated to the consequences of errors.