Writer Sean Thomas asks at the Spectator, “Would you trust a bot with your bank account?, likely suspecting that the answer is no. The AI industry is currently working on agentic AI, which sounds something like putting HAL 9000 or the Terminator in charge of one’s life:

Agentic is like ChatGPT4 or Gemini but it also has agency. It can act autonomously. It only needs the vaguest command or a list of intentions, and it will go off and complete relevant tasks, maybe online, maybe somewhere else – making independent decisions on the way. Agentic AI enables the bot to fully interact online as a human would. When tasked to sort a cheap holiday in Barcelona, these AIs won’t simply offer you a list of budget places near the Sagrada Familia; they will actually book a nice Airbnb. Ask agentic AI to ‘find a present for my husband’, and it won’t muse volubly on the various merits of aftershave versus cufflinks; it will take all its knowledge of your family and purchase a perfectly lovely fountain pen.

“Are you ready for agentic AI?,” December 2, 2024

NVIDIA, an AI firm, explains it like this:

The next frontier of artificial intelligence is agentic AI, which uses sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning to autonomously solve complex, multi-step problems. And it’s set to enhance productivity and operations across industries.

Agentic AI systems ingest vast amounts of data from multiple sources to independently analyze challenges, develop strategies and execute tasks like supply chain optimization, cybersecurity vulnerability analysis and helping doctors with time-consuming tasks.

“What Is Agentic AI?,” October 22, 2024

Thomas thinks agentic AI might triumph in warfare:

An AI general will be able to draw on near-infinite amounts of data, it will instantly grasp that there are 34,829 physically fit troops that can be moved in 4.7 hours to train station X; it will outclass human generals by orders of magnitude. Therefore, every state, every army, every military, will demand these AI warlords. And for these robot generals to succeed, we will have to make them agentic, so they can devise and execute tactics at mega-speed and thereby triumph. “Agentic AI?”

But what if it falls victim to hallucination or model collapse? And why do we keep hearing that AI progress is slowing?

Don’t tell anyone your PIN number and especially not a bot.

See also: