We Need a New Ethics for a World of AI Agents

We need a new ethics for a world of AI agents . The deployment of capable AI agents raises fresh questions about safety, human-machine relationships and social coordination. Ar tificial intelligence (AI) developers are shifting their focus to building agents that can operate independently, with little human inter vention. To be an agent is to have the ability to perceive and act on an environment in a goal-directed and autonomous way. For example, a dig ital agent could be programmed to browse the web and make online purchases on behalf of a user -- comparing prices, selecting items and completing checkouts.