Glimstedt Advertisement: AI Agents – What Are They?

 "Generative AI dominated the AI ​​industry in 2024. One after another, increasingly capable chatbots appeared, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT o1, other AI tools capable of generating images, audio and video, such as AI AI studios from Deepbrain AI, Dream Machine from Luma Labs, etc.

 

While generative AI tools are still looking for mass adoption in various business areas, the AI ​​industry is gradually taking the next step and starting to talk about AI agents or "agentic AI".

 

AI agents are more advanced AI systems that can independently initiate and complete tasks, make decisions, and perform necessary actions with minimal or no human supervision.

 

In other words, generative AI models are designed for someone to create, while AI agents are designed to act.

 

AI agents can be used in a variety of sectors. They can help assess people’s creditworthiness, review and decide on insurance claims, assess and allocate social security benefits, or suggest personalized treatment plans based on real-time health data. These are just a few of the areas where AI agents can be used.

 

OpenAI, which often sets trends in the AI ​​industry, last week unveiled its own AI agent, Operator. This AI agent, according to OpenAI, will be able to fill out forms or order food online on behalf of users.

 

The system is still in the testing phase, and its developers will seek feedback from early adopters to improve it.[1]

 

It is widely known that generative artificial intelligence is associated with many not only technical (e.g., so-called hallucinations), but also legal problems, such as the sometimes borderline legality of using works of authors available on the Internet to train artificial intelligence models.

 

What should you know before starting to use AI agents?

 

In order for AI agents to be able to perform the functions assigned to them, they need considerable autonomy to make decisions and perform appropriate actions to implement these decisions.

 

This essential property of AI agents and other general characteristics of artificial intelligence systems, which are also characteristic of AI agents, raise at least several legal aspects that must be paid attention to before AI agents are "untied".

 

Data and privacy protection. The majority of AI agents currently being developed are based on large language models technology. Therefore, in order to function properly, like large language models, AI agents will have to be trained on appropriate data. In this case, this data will have to be taken from the specific user environment so that the AI ​​agent, having become familiar with this environment, can act independently in it and achieve the user's goals.

 

When collecting this data and transferring it to the AI  ​​agent system, all data protection principles (data minimization, etc.) will have to be ensured. Of course, these principles will have to be ensured even after the AI ​​agent has already started operating, for example, when interacting with the customers of the company that used it and collecting their data.

 

Cybersecurity. AI agents, like any other software, can become a target for hackers. Certain sensitive data can also be leaked to third parties due to errors in the software on which AI agents operate.

 

Liability for damage caused. An AI agent, while independently implementing the goals assigned to it, can cause damage. In such a case, the question would arise as to who should compensate for this damage. Since the AI ​​agent itself is just software, the question of the legal liability of its user or developer would arise.

 

Liability for software defects. In the event that the software constituting the AI ​​agent has quality defects, i.e. does not function properly due to errors left in the development process or arising during software updates, the question of the legal liability of its developers would arise.

 

Compliance with legal requirements. AI agents can be designed to operate in a wide variety of areas. Some of these areas, such as the financial sector, are strictly regulated by specific legal acts applicable to them. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that an AI agent used in such an area, when independently performing certain actions, does not violate the requirements of applicable legal acts.

 

Conclusion of contracts. Technically enabling an AI agent to perform actions such as the acquisition of goods would essentially mean that the AI ​​agent concludes transactions that should create corresponding rights and obligations for its user.

 

In certain cases, the question could arise whether a certain person or company using the AI ​​agent will properly express the will to enter into a relevant transaction using an AI agent. The other side of the coin could be that the AI ​​agent would assume unwanted legal obligations on behalf of the user. For example, an agent designed to optimize the logistics supply chain could purchase more goods than the company needed at the time. In such a case, it may be difficult to justify that a certain transaction was concluded without the necessary authorization.

 

This list identifies only a few of the main legal risks associated with the use of AI agents. Given how widely AI agents can potentially be applied, there may be more relevant legal risks. Therefore, they should be assessed separately for each individual AI agent.

 

How to ensure that the full potential of AI agents is used?

 

AI agents bring AI technology closer to its main vision - autonomous AI systems that perform the most complex and unpleasant tasks, thereby unleashing the creative potential of people. However, in order for these latest AI tools to truly achieve their intended goals, several factors must be properly considered when developing and using them. It is necessary to properly assess the context in which the respective AI agent will be used, what goals are set for it and who will specifically use it, how complex the technology on which the AI ​​agent is based is or should be, and what are the limitations of this technology, how to ensure the proper use of the AI ​​agent and its smooth further operation. These aspects should be assessed not only by companies developing AI agents, but also by their users, so that they can understand whether AI agents can actually properly perform the tasks for which they are intended."

 

[1] https://openai.com/index/introducing-operator/