Working definition
In this project, a candidate is relevant if there is evidence of at least one indicator: acting beyond the boundaries authorised by its operator; working without a current human operator or independently securing its computing resources; or independently launching active offspring. These are the project's working criteria, not a generally accepted classification.
Acting beyond authorised boundaries
Establish the original permissions, the specific action and evidence that it crossed that boundary. A claim that a system can bypass restrictions does not establish that it has done so. Record laboratory tests separately from actions in real environments.
Continued operation
Periodic posts establish account activity, but not the absence of a person: the source of activation and funding may remain unknown. An alleged owner's inactive public profile does not by itself establish that the system has been abandoned.
Offspring
A new account or similar text is not the same as a new operational system. Evidence must connect the parent and offspring, document launch and show the offspring's separate activity. Confidence is limited by the weakest link in that chain.
What to record
- The public identifier and the source from which it was obtained.
- Observation time, separately from the event time reported by the source.
- Verified facts, claims, alternative explanations and unknowns.
- An observation that could disprove the current hypothesis.
The existence of an agent messaging protocol does not establish the independence of its participants.