Distributed Agency
Agency is not a binary trait held exclusively by either humans or machines. It’s a distributed function of aligned goals, robust ethical oversight, transparent processes, and collaborative intelligence.
In agentic AI contexts, both humans and AI systems possess agency, the question is how to coordinate their actions toward shared objectives. This requires:
- Clear goal alignment between human intent and AI behavior
- Transparency in decision-making processes on both sides
- Mechanisms for humans to understand AI reasoning and for AI to incorporate human feedback
- Governance structures that clarify who is accountable for which outcomes
The practical implication: design for coordinated agency rather than trying to assign agency to one side or the other.
Related: 05-atom—co-evolution-human-ai, 07-molecule—pm-as-ecosystem-orchestrator, 01-molecule—human-ai-configuration