Antisera for Misconceptions Around Agentic Technology

Proponents of agentic technology (semiautonomous, artificially intelligent systems including algorithmic decision-makers and artificial agents) claim revolutionary benefit for humanity. But unexamined acceptance of this claim spells a departure for our conception of the nature and purpose of the human experience. In this paper, I discuss select concerns with the state of development, understanding, and adoption of agentic technology to offer technical and lay communities entry into critical examination of its purported contributions to individual quality of life and collective welfare. These concerns, expressed by contrasting humanism with techno-optimism, by challenging the simplistic approach of “trolleyology,” and by relating experiential and relational ethics considerations to human-machine interaction, together amount to an alternative perspective for the way in which we evaluate the roles agentic technology ought and ought not to have in society.