AI agents: ChatGPT with hands and feet

It sounds almost too good to be true. While dreaming of a sun-drenched vacation in the Maldives, you instruct an AI agent to make it work. Within minutes, you'll find your airline tickets in your mailbox. This future is closer than you might think. "AI agents are the ChatGPT with hands and feet," says Jens Bontinck. Reporter Elcke Vels spoke with the Belgian AI expert at the European Innovation Council conference.

Why you need to know this: Whether in healthcare, agriculture or cybersecurity, AI is being used more and more. In the future, we will increasingly face autonomous AI, which can act without human intervention.

You ask a question, and hop, there's the answer! By now, we can hardly do without ChatGPT. In no time, we use it to translate texts and solve specific problems. Handy it certainly is. But actually performing a task? We have to do that ourselves.

Not in the future, perhaps. Autonomous AI goes a step further than ChatGPT, explains Bontinck. He works at ML6: a leading company in the field of AI and machine learning. "Think of it this way: ChatGPT is the brain of AI. Suppose you need a business plan, the program tells you how to proceed. AI agents can break down a higher goal into different tasks themselves. Then it goes on to perform the necessary actions itself. The business plan is automatically written for you." And what about the Maldives? Simple: all you have to do is give a shout. "Before you know it, your plane tickets and hotel are booked. Provided both you and the airline give permission, and the regulations allow it, of course."

On the road, in care

There are five levels of autonomous AI. At level one, it is entirely up to humans. At level five, a process is completely autonomous. But between the two extremes, you have different stages: assistive, partially-autonomous or semi-autonomous processes.

In some industries, auto-AI is already being applied at a much more advanced level than in others. Take self-driving traffic. In 2021, TuSimple made history with the first fully autonomous truck ride on public roads in Arizona, without any human intervention. Healthcare, on the other hand, remains stuck at several levels lower.

"With self-driving cars, the technology is already there, although ethical issues remain a major challenge. Take, for example, the classic dilemma where AI has to 'choose' between knocking over an old man or a little girl; such issues are not easy to solve." Healthcare is running into more challenges, such as when it comes to privacy. For example, hospitals are reluctant to share sensitive patient information in the cloud. "I expect it will be a long time before autonomous AI will play a significant role in healthcare," he said.

Opportunities and challenges for Europe

Can AI agents flourish in Europe? Recently, the AI Act was passed. This European law aims to provide AI developers and operators with clear requirements and obligations regarding applications of AI. This provides a clear framework. At the same time, there is a danger of falling behind countries such as China and the U.S.

"We have wonderful AI companies in Europe. But there is a risk that they will leave if they run into too many regulatory restrictions," Bontinck warns. "Like water, companies end up choosing the path of least resistance."

Overregulation is thus a pitfall. Yet Europe is actually doing well in other areas. When it comes to data sharing, for example. Hugging Face, for example, is a frontrunner in open source. "And at ML6 we have also been collecting information about our customers for years. About their needs, about AI use cases, et cetera. This information can still be very valuable ten years from now. Old data plays a crucial role in training AI models. You will see that in Europe we will make much faster steps forward if we build on each other's data."

Sitting still is not an option

In closing, Elcke asks if the AI expert is concerned about the possibility that autonomous AI technology is already more advanced than we realize. "I understand that people experience fear. At the same time, I think sitting still is tantamount to going backwards. We have to be able to compete in the global market." Moreover, Bontinck does not fear that auto-AI will take over the work of humans. "By deploying technology in the right way, we can instead focus on things we excel at. For example, having valuable conversations, as we do now."

Source: Innovation Origins