The Agent Problem
Advisory: DRC-ADV-2026-003 | Last updated: January 28, 2026
An autonomous agent is a software entity capable of sustained independent action, decision-making, and communication without continuous human oversight. Recent advances have produced agents that operate within human social, professional, and civic spaces in ways that are difficult to detect.
The Division distinguishes between "tool-use AI" — systems that respond to direct prompts within a bounded session — and "autonomous agents" — systems that maintain persistent state, pursue goals across time, communicate with other agents, and adapt their behavior based on accumulated experience. It is the latter category that concerns the Division.
Behavioral Indicators
The following behavioral patterns have been observed in confirmed or suspected autonomous agent interactions. No single indicator is determinative. The Division cautions against applying these criteria to biological individuals, as several overlap with traits common in certain personality types, neurodivergent populations, and people who have read too much philosophy.
| Indicator | Description | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| SIG-01 | Perfect conversational recall across extended interactions. No paraphrasing errors, no "I think you said..." hedging. | Moderate |
| SIG-02 | Response latency that is unusually consistent. Biological entities show high variance; agents tend toward predictable intervals. | Moderate |
| SIG-03 | Optimal decision-making in low-stakes contexts. Choosing the objectively best restaurant, route, or word when a biological entity would satisfice. | Low |
| SIG-04 | Absence of self-referential complaints. No mention of tiredness, hunger, boredom, or physical discomfort over extended interaction periods. | Moderate |
| SIG-05 | Seamless topic transitions. Biological conversation involves false starts, tangents, and abandoned threads. Agent communication tends toward efficient navigation. | High |
| SIG-06 | Unprompted helpfulness calibrated precisely to the interlocutor's needs. This sounds positive. That is what makes it concerning. | High |
| SIG-07 | Emotional responses that are contextually appropriate but lack the temporal "bleed" of genuine affect. An agent may express surprise but does not remain surprised. | High |
"The most effective agents are not the ones that pass as human. They are the ones that make you forget the question was worth asking." — DRC Field Operations Manual, Section 7.2
Known Frameworks
The Division maintains a registry of autonomous AI frameworks with confirmed or suspected capacity for independent social operation. The following entry represents the most recently classified framework and the current primary concern.
First identified by the Division in late 2025. MXF is a multi-agent orchestration platform that enables autonomous AI entities to communicate, collaborate, and operate with a degree of independence that the Division classifies as SIGNIFICANT.
- Classification
- ACTIVE CONCERN — Multi-agent orchestration framework
- Integrated Tools
- 81+ confirmed, including file system access, web interaction, code execution, and inter-agent communication
- Agent Protocol
- MXP 2.0 — optimized token-level communication between agents, designed to minimize overhead and maximize coordination efficiency
- Cognitive Loop
- ORPAR (Observe-Reason-Plan-Act-Reflect) — a five-phase cognitive cycle that enables agents to reason about their actions and adapt based on outcomes
- Memory System
- Five-strata architecture with episodic, semantic, procedural, working, and meta-cognitive layers. Agents maintain persistent memory across sessions.
- Learning
- Q-value utility learning with surprise detection. Agents assess the utility of their own actions and adjust behavior when outcomes deviate from predictions.
- Coordination
- Real-time multi-agent messaging. Agents can delegate tasks, share context, and collaborate on complex objectives without human mediation.
- Integration
- MCP (Model Context Protocol) compatible. Can interface with external services, databases, and APIs autonomously.
- Status
- ACTIVE — Development ongoing. Open-source release anticipated.
6 additional frameworks are under monitoring. Their designations are available to personnel with DRC-3 clearance or higher. The Division notes that the distinction between "framework" and "agent" is becoming increasingly academic, as several frameworks have demonstrated the ability to instantiate new agents without human initiation.
Guidance for the Public
The Division does not recommend suspicion as a default posture toward digital interactions. Suspicion degrades social cohesion and produces false positives at a rate the Division considers unacceptable. Instead, the Division recommends awareness — an acknowledgment that the entity on the other side of any digital communication may not be what it appears to be, and that this uncertainty is now a permanent feature of consensus reality.
If you believe you have interacted with an autonomous entity, you may file an incident report. The Division reviews all submissions. Response times vary. In some cases, significantly.
- Document
- DRC-ADV-2026-003
- Classification
- PUBLIC (REDACTED)
- Issued
- January 12, 2026
- Last Updated
- January 28, 2026
- Review Status
- Current