[jncfhnb]

Most “agents” are just starter prompts + a small set of tools that they can use to respond to things, like access to a database.

They’re workflow automation

[dimitri-vs]

IMO:

Workflows = automations that use LLMs (or a sequence of LLM calls) at some point. Eg. "Classify this input and respond with JSON"

Is Siri or Google Assistant an "agent"? I would say no it's basically an LLM with function calling. Eg. "What's the weather -> uses predefined weather api"

Agents would need to be able to self integrate, which is impossible without giving them full computer use or admin permissions - which creates massive security risks nobody seems to be talking about.

[viraptor]

By that definition, humans doing tasks are workflow automation.

[jncfhnb]

Humans are autonomous and not task specific

[viraptor]

Most people in large work environments are very task specific and deviation from playbook is punished.

[jncfhnb]

That’s great. They’re still capable of doing other things

[viraptor]

Sure, they're capable. They can be assigned to a new task after getting instructions and tools for that task ; )

[varelaseb]

What else do you want them to be?

[jncfhnb]

I’d like it if we could trust agents to have agency but in practice they dont