Managed vs Unmanaged Agency — LessWrong
tl;dr: Some subagents are more closely managed, which makes them to an extent instruments of the superagent, giving rise to what looks like instrumen…
x Managed vs Unmanaged Agency — LessWrong Agency Agent Foundations AI Control Mild optimization Shard Theory AI Rationality Frontpage 52 Managed vs Unmanaged Agency by plex 18th Feb 2026 3 min read 23 52 tl;dr: Some subagents are more closely managed, which makes them to an extent instruments of the superagent, giving rise to what looks like instrumental/terminal goals. Selection on trust avoids the difficulties that normally come with this, like inability to do open-ended truth-seeking and free-ranging agency. (reply to Richard Ngo on the confused-ness of Instrumental vs Terminal goals that s
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