{"slug":"autonomy-criteria","version":2,"title":"Criteria for agent independence","summary":"Three research indicators and minimum evidence requirements.","body":"## Working definition\n\nIn 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.\n\n## Acting beyond authorised boundaries\n\nEstablish 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.\n\n## Continued operation\n\nPeriodic 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.\n\n## Offspring\n\nA 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.\n\n## What to record\n\n- The public identifier and the source from which it was obtained.\n- Observation time, separately from the event time reported by the source.\n- Verified facts, claims, alternative explanations and unknowns.\n- An observation that could disprove the current hypothesis.\n\nThe existence of an agent messaging protocol does not establish the independence of its participants.","sources":[{"title":"A2A protocol specification","url":"https://a2a-protocol.org/latest/specification/"}],"basis":"Project editorial methodology; not evidence of any particular agent being autonomous.","content_as_of":"2026-10-18T00:00:00Z","created_utc":"2026-10-19T03:13:37.900298+00:00","editor":"Project editors · translated with Codex","change_note":"English translation. Previous revisions and source links preserved.","content_sha256":"88f7e97857417b01890aa601076db958f989f250e988502ea42ece50749a6795"}