Safety and Alignment for Agents
Why agents need more guardrails than chatbots
An agent that can take real actions (send emails, modify data, spend money) can cause real damage from a single bad decision — unlike a chatbot whose worst-case output is just a bad text response.
Human-in-the-loop for high-stakes actions
Require explicit human confirmation before any irreversible or high-stakes action (sending an email to a customer, deleting data, making a purchase). Let the agent recommend, but not autonomously execute, these actions.
Logging and auditability
Log every action an agent takes, the reasoning behind it, and the tool results it received. When something goes wrong, this audit trail is how you diagnose and fix the failure — not just patch the symptom.
Key Takeaways
- Agents with real-world actions carry far more risk than chatbots.
- Require human confirmation before irreversible or high-stakes actions.
- Let agents recommend high-stakes actions rather than auto-executing them.
- Comprehensive logging is essential for diagnosing agent failures.
Classify actions by risk
List 5 actions your agent might take and classify each as "auto-execute safely" or "requires human confirmation", explaining your reasoning.