Can AI Agents Be Trusted?

Agentic AI has quickly become one of the most active areas of artificial intelligence development. AI agents are a level of programming on top of large language models that allow them to work towards specific goals. 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. Leading companies are already 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? How will we know? While there are many serious risks, there are also ways to address them. Here are three key steps to ensuring trustworthy personal AI agents, some of which is already in development:

1. Treat AI Agents as Fiduciaries
2. Encourage Market Enforcement of AI Agent Independence
3. Keep Decisions Local

[Blair Levin is currently a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution and Policy Advisor with New Street Research. Larry Downes is a co-author of Pivot to the Future: Discovering Value and Creating Growth in a Disrupted World.]