Gwern's 2016 'Tool AIs Want to Be Agent AIs' thesis vindicated, says founder
tszzl · x · 2026-09-21
A founder invokes Gwern's classic 2016 essay "Why Tool AIs Want to Be Agent AIs" — arguing all problems are RL problems, so agency-limited Tool AIs will always lose economically and intellectually to autonomous agents — as vindicated by today's AI-driven scientific revolution. A researcher counters that agency is a spectrum and preferring highly capable but limited-agency AI remains a defensible alignment path, framing today's core oracle-vs-agent debate.
Related event: Debate flares over fast versus gradual agent deployment(4 posts)→
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