For technology adopters looking for the next big thing, “agentic AI” is the future. At least, that’s what the marketing pitches and tech industry T-shirts say.
What makes an artificial intelligence product “agentic” depends on who’s selling it. But the promise is usually that it’s a step beyond today’s generative AI chatbots.
Chatbots, however useful, are all talk and no action. They can answer questions, retrieve and summarize information, write papers and generate images, music, video and lines of code. AI agents, by contrast, are supposed to be able to take actions autonomously on a person’s behalf.
Photo: AP 照片：美聯社
If you’re confused, you’re not alone. Google searches for “agentic” skyrocketed from near obscurity a year ago to a peak this fall. Merriam-Webster hasn’t added it to the dictionary but lists “agentic” as a slang or trending term defined as: “Able to accomplish results with autonomy, used especially in reference to artificial intelligence.”
How to know if it’s an AI agent or just a fancy chatbot
AI chatbots — such as the original ChatGPT that debuted three years ago this month — rely on systems called large language models (LLMs) that predict the next word in a sentence based on the huge trove of human writings they’ve been trained on. They can sound remarkably human, especially when given a voice, but are effectively performing a kind of word completion.
Photo: ChatGPT 照片：ChatGPT
That’s different from what AI developers — including ChatGPT’s maker, OpenAI, and tech giants like Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Salesforce — have in mind for AI agents.
“A generative AI-based chatbot will say, ‘Here are the great ideas’ … and then be done,” said Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of Agentic AI at Amazon Web Services, in an interview last week. “It’s useful, but what makes things agentic is that it goes beyond what a chatbot does.”
At its most basic level, an AI agent works like a traditional, human-crafted computer program that executes a job, like launching an application. Combined with an AI large language model, however, it can search for knowledge that enables it to complete tasks without explicit, step-by-step instructions. That means, instead of just helping you draft the language of an email, it can theoretically handle the whole process — receiving a message from your coworker, figuring out what you might want to say, and firing off the response on its own.
Photo: Reuters 照片：路透社
For most consumers, the first encounters with AI agents could be in realms like online shopping. Set a budget and some preferences and AI agents can buy things or arrange travel bookings using your credit card. In the longer run, the hope is that they can do more complex tasks with access to your computer and a set of guidelines to follow.
‘Agentic’ is a trendy buzzword based
on an older idea
Milind Tambe has been researching AI agents that work together for three decades, since the first International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems gathered in San Francisco in 1995. Tambe said he’s been “amused” by the sudden popularity of “agentic” as an adjective. Previously, the word describing something that has agency was mostly found in other academic fields, such as psychology or chemistry.
But computer scientists have been debating what an agent is for as long as Tambe has been studying them.
The prominent AI researcher Andrew Ng, co-founder of online learning company Coursera, helped advocate for popularizing the adjective “agentic” more than a year ago to encompass a broader spectrum of AI tasks.
(AP)
對尋求科技下一個大突破的人來說，「代理式人工智慧」（agentic AI）被認為是未來的路。至少，行銷宣傳與科技業T恤上是這麼說的。
究竟什麼樣的人工智慧產品算是「代理式」，取決於銷售者的說法；但它通常被宣稱是比現今的生成式AI聊天機器人要更進一步。
聊天機器人雖然實用，但「只能說不能做」——它能回答問題、搜尋、摘要資訊、撰寫文章，以及生成圖片、音樂、影片與程式碼。相較之下，AI代理人則被認為可以自主代替人做出行動。
若你感到困惑，你不是唯一這樣覺得的人。「agentic」一詞的Google搜尋量在一年內從默默無聞飆升到今年秋天的高峰。美國韋氏字典雖尚未正式收錄該詞，但已將其列為俚語或流行用語，定義為：「能以自主方式完成結果，主要指的是人工智慧」。
它是AI代理人，或只是更花俏的聊天機器人？
AI聊天機器人——例如三年前本月問世的原始版ChatGPT——依賴稱為大型語言模型（LLM）的系統，透過訓練於海量人類文字資料來預測句子裡下一個字。AI聊天機器人可能聽起來很像人類，尤其在配上語音後，但本質上仍是在執行某種「文字自動完成」。
這與AI開發者（包括 ChatGPT 的開發商OpenAI，以及Amazon、Google、IBM、Microsoft、Salesforce等科技巨頭）對「AI代理人」的構想非常不同。
「生成式AI的聊天機器人會說：『這些是很棒的點子』……然後就結束了」，亞馬遜網路服務（AWS）代理式AI副總裁斯瓦米．西瓦蘇布拉馬尼安上週受訪時說道。「它很有用，但代理式AI的關鍵是要更進一步，超越聊天機器人的功能」。
最基本來說，AI代理人像是傳統由人類撰寫的電腦程式，能執行一項任務，例如啟動應用程式。但它結合大型語言模型後，就能搜尋所需知識，在沒有明確的逐步指示下完成任務。這代表，AI不僅能協助你起草郵件內容，理論上它能處理整個流程——接收同事的訊息、推測你想寫什麼，甚至自動寄出回覆。
對一般消費者而言，跟AI代理人的首次接觸可能會出現在網購等領域。只要設定預算與偏好，AI代理人就能用你的信用卡自動購物或安排旅遊。長遠來看，業界希望AI代理人能在得到電腦存取權限與一套指引後，執行更複雜的任務。
「Agentic」是基於舊概念而翻紅的新潮流行語
米林德．丹貝已研究協作式AI代理人長達30年，從1995年第一屆多重代理人系統國際會議在舊金山舉行開始便投入該領域。丹貝說他對「agentic」一字被用做形容詞而突然走紅「感到很有趣」，因為這個字過去大多是在心理學或化學等其他學科中出現，描述事物有作用、有仲介。
但電腦科學家一直以來都在討論代理人（agent）的用途，從丹貝投入研究起就是如此。
知名AI研究者、教育科技公司Coursera共同創辦人吳恩達（Andrew Ng）在一年多前便開始推動普及「agentic」這個形容詞，以涵蓋更廣泛的AI任務範疇。
（台北時報林俐凱編譯）
Every few years, the World Baseball Classic (WBC) offers sports fans a real World Series. At its finest, as in the shocking upset on Tuesday last week of the US team by Italy, the games generate the kind of electricity fans feel at the FIFA World Cup. That’s exactly how Major League Baseball (MLB), which owns the WBC, wants it. The tournament, first played in 2006, was designed to boost the league’s profile beyond North America and help it become a global game. In most respects, it’s done better than expected. Yet as the WBC grows, the structure, timing and staging of
Dos & Don’ts — 想想看，這句話英語該怎麼說？ 1. 她德語說得和她老師一樣流利。 ˇ Her German is as fluent as her teacher’s. ˇ She speaks German as fluently as her teacher (does). χ Her German is as fluent as her teacher. 註︰這裏所比的是「她的德語」和「她老師的德語」，而不是把她的德語和她的老師這個人相比，所以必須說 her teacher’s，即 her teacher’s German。或把「她說德語」和「她老師說德語」比較。 2. 一般認為北部人生活步調和南部人不同。 ˇ The people of the North are generally described as different from those of the South in terms of pace of life. χ The people of the North are generally described as different from the South in terms of pace of life. 註︰所不同者是北部人和南部人，而不是北部人和南部地區的比較，所以應加 those of，those 代替 the people，以免重複。 3. 他的新小說和上一本風格不同。 ˇ The style of his new novel is different from that of his last one. ˇ His new
對話 Dialogue 清清：華華，別忘了這禮拜五晚上，老闆請喝春酒喔！ Qīngqing: Huáhua, bié wàngle zhè lǐbàiwǔ wǎnshàng, lǎobǎn qǐng hē chūnjiǔ o! 華華：啊！我差點忘了，謝謝提醒。 Huáhua: À! Wǒ chàdiǎn wàngle, xièxie tíxǐng. 清清：老闆人真好，過年前請我們吃尾牙，過完年又請吃春酒。 Qīngqing: Lǎobǎn rén zhēn hǎo, guònián qián qǐng wǒmen chī Wěiyá, guòwán nián yòu qǐng chī chūnjiǔ. 華華：尾牙是感謝我們過去一年的辛勞，春酒是希望我們今年繼續努力啊！ Huáhua: Wěiyá shì gǎnxiè wǒmen guòqù yì nián de xīnláo, chūnjiǔ shì xīwàng wǒmen jīnnián jìxù nǔlì a! 清清：給我加薪，我就努力。 Qīngqing: Gěi wǒ jiāxīn, wǒ jiù nǔlì. 華華：還真是「有錢能使鬼推磨」。 Huáhua: Hái zhēn shì “Yǒu qián néng shǐ guǐ tuī mò.” 清清：那還用說。對了！別只顧著吃，頭牙快到了，農曆二月二是土地公生日，記得跟我去拜拜。 Qīngqing: Nà hái yòng shuō. Duìle! Bié zhǐ gùzhe chī, Tóuyá kuài dàole, nónglì èr yuè èr shì Tǔdìgōng shēngrì, jìdé gēn wǒ qù bàibai. 華華：沒問題，東西我來準備，放心吧！一起發大財！ Huáhua: Méi wèntí, dōngxi wǒ lái zhǔnbèi, fàngxīn ba!
When people think of Spain, they often picture bullfights and flamenco—but there’s another celebration you shouldn’t miss. Every March, Valencia comes alive with “Las Fallas.” Its origins go back centuries to when carpenters burned wooden scraps they no longer needed to welcome spring as winter ended. Over time, the custom evolved from bonfires to giant street sculptures called fallas. This tradition has since developed into a UNESCO-recognized event that attracts millions of visitors. This festival centers on the ritual burning of falla monuments. Each monument is made up of several ninots: giant puppets that are crafted all year by local artists.
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