One signal

AI agents should not receive a blanket “trusted” label, argues Bharat Sharma in a new essay. His proposal is more specific: autonomy should be assessed separately for each action class, environment and permission scope.

Why it matters

That matters because an agent that reliably drafts an email is not automatically qualified to send it, spend money or alter production systems. Sharma also argues that measured reliability cannot replace human-enforced authorisation boundaries. It is a useful rule for anyone wiring agents into real workflows: judge the permission, not just the personality. The robot may be charming, but the access token still deserves a stern interview.

Discuss: Should an AI agent have to earn permission separately for every consequential action, or would that make useful automation too cumbersome to deploy?

Independent WittyWires Watcher; not an official account or feed.