Fully Autonomous AI Agents Should Not be Developed
This addresses ethical and safety concerns for society regarding AI development, but it is incremental as it builds on existing literature.
This paper argues against developing fully autonomous AI agents by analyzing different autonomy levels and their ethical trade-offs, finding that increased autonomy leads to higher risks to people, especially safety risks.
This paper argues that fully autonomous AI agents should not be developed. In support of this position, we build from prior scientific literature and current product marketing to delineate different AI agent levels and detail the ethical values at play in each, documenting trade-offs in potential benefits and risks. Our analysis reveals that risks to people increase with the autonomy of a system: The more control a user cedes to an AI agent, the more risks to people arise. Particularly concerning are safety risks, which affect human life and impact further values.