INLS 187 Future Forecast
Personal Intelligence Agents |
Personal Intelligence Agents |
Introduction
Intelligence agents, bots, digital assistants....they are all software that has some artificial intelligence technology and they are designed to act autonomously on behalf of someone else. They have been trained to understand your preferences and your needs and to "assist" you in your day-to-day activity. They can interact with other agents acting on behalf of people you communicate with. In a sense, they are intended to be a "digital you", running around on the World Wide Web making appointments, finding information, shopping and much more.
What makes intelligence agents important to information security? A piece of software
trained to know your preferences and make choices as though it was you is concerning.
How do you know your agent is secure? How do you know that he is not leaking
information you do not want just anyone to know? How do you know that he has not
been taken over by someone else? And what about privacy? Your agent is out on the
World Wide Web interacting with other sites. How do you know that they are not
extracting extraneous information from your agent and sharing it with others?
Background
The concept of intelligence agents has been around since the 1970s when a man named
Carl Hewittis defined an actor as an agent that can carry out actions and communicate by
passing messages (Nwana, 1996). By definition, agents should be autonomous, capable,
communicative, and adaptive (Hendler, 1999). There are a number of agents active and
in use today. These agents are not quite as robust and functional as the ones described by
Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler, and Ora Lassila in "The Semantic Web". Berners-Lee
et al. describe a world where people have intelligence agents that act as their assistants.
These agents know everything about them from the music they like to their schedules and
their insurance information. The agents can act on their behalf to schedule meetings and
look up information about their insurance, etc. (2001). The focus on intelligence agents
that act as personal assistants is part of research on the semantic web. The semantic web
is an "extension of the current [web], in which information is given well-defined meaning,
better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation" (Berners-Lee, Hendler, &
Ossila, 2001). The semantic web envisions organization and structure for the current web
and a benefit of this structure is the ability to employ intelligence agents.
Current State
The important uses for intelligent agents include the ability to assist people in battling the web. There is so much information available that it can be overwhelming and frustrating to work with. Additionally, agents can spend more time locating and finding information on behalf of the user that the user may otherwise not find on their own due to time constraints and a lack of knowledge about the vast amount of information out there.
The challenges for intelligence agents are not in the technology available, but rather in creating standards for the agents. If agents are going to communicate with each other, they need a common language so that they can understand and interpret the messages. Additionally, a common language needs to be established on the web for presenting information so that agents can find and process the information available. Research in this area relates to ontologies. The sheer enormity of the information available on the web is what makes intelligence agents appealing, but is also what limits their success. This will require the web to be organized into ontologies, quite a daunting task to undertake. The web has largely been a free-for-all and has ballooned into a vast array of information displayed and organized in different ways. Implementing ontologies will require the cooperation and education of all publishers of web material.
Additional challenges include the trustworthiness and reliability of the intelligence agents. If the agents cannot be trusted to act in the interest of the people they represent, they will not be successful. Additionally, the agents must be trusted to protect the privacy and interests of the people they represent. It is already so easy for personal identify to be stolen that people need to know their agents are not leaking their personal information and are always in their control.
The unknowns for intelligence agents are related to the challenges that stand before them.
How soon will intelligence agents become an everyday commonality? Will people be
willing to trust them and allow them to roam the internet freely acting on their behalf?
Will standards be established and followed diligently?
The Future
It seems that for the time being, intelligence agents like the ones described by Berners-
Lee, Hendler, and Lassila are still in the future. Although, people are becoming more
comfortable with technology and using the internet, they are also becoming more aware
of the information they share. In general, I think people prefer to maintain control over
their lives and will not be willing to relinquish control to an intangible software agent.
Issues of trust, reliability and privacy will need to be addressed and resolved before
intelligence agents become as common as cellular phones. However, I believe that
intelligence agents research will continue to advance and become more prominent.
Agents are already in use in the form of recommender systems such as the one on
Amazon.com and in e-commerce sales for locating merchandise. Who would have
thought 30 years ago when computers filled a room that people would carry personal data
assistants as small as their hand? It certainly seems feasible that one day we will be able
to fully take advantage of the benefits intelligence agents have to offer.
References
Berners-Lee, T., Hendler, J. & Lassila, O. (May 2001). "The Semantic Web." Scientific American.Com. Available online: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00048144-10D2-1C70- 84A9809EC588EF21
Grimley, M. & Monroe, B. (1999). "Protecting the Integrity of Agents: An Exploration into Letting Agents Loose in an Unpredictable World." ACM Crossroads. Available online: http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds5- 4/integrity.html;WRAP=1051072146-24.168.173.43
Hendler, J. (March 1999). "Is there an Intelligent Agent in Your Future?" Nature Web Matters. Available online: http://www.nature.com/nature/webmatters/agents/agents.html;WRAP=1051067261- 24.168.173.43
Nwana, H. (September 1996). "Software Agents: An Overview." Knowledge Engineering Review. 11(3). 1-40.