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.

During a recent stay in London, my wife and I took an early evening stroll down Lamb's Conduit Street, in the West End district of Bloomsbury, a mere 15-minute walk from the din of Piccadilly Circus but a world away: peaceful, elegant, a medley of quaint shops and stately houses, tucked amid which was a restaurant called Noble Rot. The atmosphere was convivial, the food delicious, the wine exquisitely paired. On the bar counter were copies of a small but thick magazine, also called Noble Rot, adorned with a bright hipster-cartoon cover. Out of curiosity, I bought one--and, as sometimes happens in random moments, my take on a whole slice of life began to change. In this case, what changed was my attitude toward wine and its seriously playful possibilities.