What living systems teach us about true agency

We call AI systems “agents” all the time. But what does “agency” actually mean?

Alan Love, philosopher and professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, argues that biology offers a more careful way to think about goal-directed behavior, function, and, eventually, machine intelligence. From earthworms reshaping soil to organisms selecting between behavioral options, living systems reveal forms of agency that are easy to overlook — and difficult to reduce to simple stimulus-response behavior.

This video What living systems teach us about true agency is featured on Big Think.