The era of the unlimited access AI agent has arrived

For years, the cost of using “free” services from Google, Facebook, Microsoftand other big tech companies have handed over your data. Uploading your life to the cloud and using free technology is convenient, but it puts personal information in the hands of giant corporations who will often seek to monetize it. Now the next wave of generative AI systems will likely want more access to your data than ever before.

Over the past two years, generative AI tools, such as OpenAIIt is ChatGPT and that of Google Gemini– have moved beyond the relatively simple, text-only chatbots that companies initially launched. Instead, Big AI is increasingly building and pushing towards the adoption of agents and “assistants” this promise that they can take actions and complete tasks on your behalf. The problem ? To get the most out of it, you will need to grant them access to your systems and data. While much of the initial controversy over large language models (LLMs) concerned the blatant copying of copyrighted data online, AI agents’ access to your personal data is likely to cause a new set of problems.

“AI agents, to benefit from their full functionality and to be able to access applications, often need access to the operating system or operating system level of the device you’re running them on,” says Harry Farmer, a senior fellow at the Ada Lovelace Institute, whose work includes studying impact of AI assistants and found that they can pose a “profound threat” to cybersecurity and privacy. For personalization of chatbots or assistants, Farmer says, there can be data trade-offs. “All of these things, to work, require a lot of information about you,” he says.

While there is no strict definition of what an AI agent actually is, it is often best thought of as a generative AI system or LLM that has been given a certain level of autonomy. Currently, agents or assistants, including AI Web Browserscan take control of your device and browse the web for you, book flights, search or add items in baskets. Some may perform tasks that include dozens individual steps.

While current AI agents are flawed and I often can’t finish the tasks they decided to do ittech companies are betting that the systems will fundamentally change millions of people as they become more proficient. A key part of their usefulness likely comes from access to data. So, if you want a system that can provide you with your schedule and tasks, it will need access to your calendar, messages, emails, and more.

Some more advanced AI products and capabilities provide insight into the degree of access that could be granted to agents and systems. Some agents currently being developed for businesses can read the codeemails, databasesSlack messages, files stored in Google Drive, and much more. Microsoft’s controversial recall The product takes screenshots of your desktop every few seconds, so you can search for everything you’ve done on your device. Tinder created an AI feature that can search among photos on your phone “to better understand” the “interests and personality” of users.

Carissa Véliz, author and associate professor at the University of Oxford, says that most of the time, consumers have no real way to verify whether AI or tech companies are treating their data as they claim. “These companies are very dispersed when it comes to data,” says Véliz. “They showed little respect for privacy.”