Between Waze and autonomous vehicles: When is it really safe to let AI take the wheel?

The transition from a passive chat to an autonomous AI agent that performs actions on behalf of the user changes the risk balance and requires defining clear control boundaries. The article presents five guiding questions: the difference between a chat and an agent, the growing relevance of autonomous tools, the risks of errors without control mechanisms, areas where agents work well versus situations requiring human judgment, and how to define permissions and red lines. The author, Noam Cohen, advises starting with repetitive tasks that allow for correction.

Noam Cohen, founder of CritiqeIL, analyzes in his article the transition from using passive AI tools (chat) to autonomous agents that perform actions on behalf of the user. He presents five key questions: the difference between a chat that answers and an agent that acts, the growing relevance of tools connecting AI to real actions, the risks of errors without control mechanisms and predefined permissions, areas where agents work well (repetitive tasks with clear steps) versus situations requiring human judgment or where the cost of error is high, and how to define permissions and red lines using a permissions page and identity and access management (IAM). The author emphasizes the importance of early planning, defining stopping points for human control, and starting with repetitive and boring tasks that allow for rollback. He notes that the essential difference between a chat and an agent is not the model, but the permission: what the tool is allowed to touch without asking.