AI Vocabulary · 07 When It Goes Wrong

What is Excessive Agency?

When an AI system has more functions, rights or autonomy than its task needs, so a wrong or manipulated output can cause real damage.

Intermediate

Excessive agency is a risk named by OWASP, the open security community. It describes an AI system that can carry out damaging actions in response to unexpected, ambiguous or manipulated outputs of the model. OWASP names three root causes: too many functions, too many permissions and too much autonomy.

An example: an email assistant only needs to read messages, yet its connector can also send and delete them. One manipulated email, a case of prompt injection, is then enough to send data out. OWASP's remedies: few and narrow tools, read-only roles where possible, actions in the user's own context, approval for risky steps, and authorisation checked by the downstream system, never by the model.

Why it matters for you

The damage an agent can do is set by its rights, whatever its intentions. Limiting what it can do is more reliable than hoping it never gets tricked.

Own it

For every tool, ask: does the task need write access? Remove open-ended tools such as a shell where a narrow function will do, and log every action.

Related