Canonical defined term
Agent
An entity or system that selects or performs actions toward an objective within an environment.
Plain-language definition
Agency may be technical, organizational, legal or philosophical; the intended sense must be stated.
The definition is intentionally bounded. It identifies the property or role under discussion without converting terminology into a claim of deployment, recognition, personhood, citizenship, sovereignty, or authority.
Technical definition
Within the K01 knowledge model, Agent is represented as a stable term object with code K01-TERM-004, canonical URL, claim status, topic owner, source links, related terms, last-reviewed date, research cutoff, and correction state. Relevant implementation components for the owning topic include decision logs; policy bounds; delegation instruments; override rules; causal traces; operational-state evidence.
Legal or policy use
Current law usually attributes obligations through owners, operators, providers, principals or institutions, although allocation varies by jurisdiction and facts.
When a statute, regulation, standard, or external institution uses a different definition, that source-specific meaning controls the analysis of that source. The project definition is not silently substituted into current law.
What the term implies
The term implies that the stated property should be evaluated using the evidence appropriate to decision formation, delegated authority, bounded independence, intervention and attribution. It supports precise reference, comparison, data exchange, and correction across public prose and machine records.
What the term does not imply
An agent is not automatically autonomous, conscious, legally authorized or a principal.
It also does not convert a valid signature, credential, database record, model hash, or website into factual truth or legal authority without additional evidence and a competent decision.
Commonly confused terms
Confusion is resolved by asking which property is actually at issue: technical control, continuity, evidence, authority, legal recognition, operation, or normative status.
Operational test
- Name the subject and purpose.
- Identify the source definition and jurisdiction or technical context.
- Collect evidence for the specific property.
- Record currentness and limitations.
- Route any governance, registry, assurance, or capital decision to the proper authority.
Related questions
Sources
- Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0) — NIST; AI RMF 1.0; Published voluntary framework; revision underway. Exact claim-support entries: 2. Revalidated 2026-08-14T22:04:09Z.
- PROV-O: The PROV Ontology — W3C; W3C Recommendation 30 April 2013; W3C Recommendation. Exact claim-support entries: 2. Revalidated 2026-08-14T22:04:09Z.
Stable term code: K01-TERM-004. Last reviewed 2026-08-16.