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The age of digital employees is not science fiction. According to a brand new report, it’s on the horizon.
AI-powered digital workers might hit the workforce inside a yr, in line with Jason Clinton, chief info safety officer at Anthropic. In feedback to Axios, Clinton famous that, whereas the know-how is advancing quick, main safety hurdles stay earlier than absolutely autonomous digital employees grow to be a actuality.
Turning AI brokers into full-time workers
The idea behind agentic AI isn’t new. Researchers and builders have been leveraging AI brokers for a number of years, they usually’re usually used to introduce a degree of autonomy that isn’t usually seen in typical AI techniques. Modern AI brokers are able to many autonomous actions, together with:
- Mimicking human conduct
- Taking particular actions based mostly on varied occasions
- Gathering and organizing knowledge
- Making complicated choices
- Interacting with customers, the atmosphere, and different built-in techniques
The idea of a digital workforce takes the automation seen in agentic AI to the subsequent degree. Not solely will digital employees have the ability to simulate human actions, gather knowledge, and make key choices, however they’ll even have their very own digital recollections. The AI employees even have their very own system login credentials.
Potential points with agentic AI and digital workers
However, Clinton identified key points that must be addressed, together with safety points, earlier than agentic AI can substitute human employees.
For instance, what occurs if their accounts are phished, hacked, or in any other case compromised? How a lot community entry ought to they’ve? Perhaps much more importantly, who can be held accountable if one thing goes fallacious?
“In that world, there are so many problems that we haven’t solved yet from a security perspective that we need to solve,” Clinton stated.
Recognizing these dangers, some cybersecurity builders have already began rolling out options. New software program, together with varied AI governance instruments, is rising to assist monitor and handle “non-human entities” as they enter the office.
But safety points are simply the tip of the iceberg. Legal and moral questions on workforce displacement, algorithmic bias, and digital accountability exist. Policymakers and companies might must grapple with this dilemma earlier than machines displace massive numbers of employees. A latest eWeek article included how people would possibly make a dwelling if AI takes over the workforce.
