Pre-Publication V2. A software entity or system designed to that can independently process input information perceive its environment, plan sequences of actions, and execute complex tasks both locally and on the wider internet to reach a specific goal with varying degrees of without continuous human oversight. (See also Agentic AI).
Deliberation Summary:
(1) Consider that these systems are not autonomous in the ordinary sense and do not perceive their surroundings, but rather run chained sequences of commands until a goal is reached, and that describing them as operating without continuous human oversight presents them as independent workers which may not be the case; instead consider describing autonomy as a spectrum, since most production systems retain some degree of human oversight. (2) Note that these systems act both on a local machine and across the wider internet; also, frame the term around what the system is designed to do.
Pre-Publication V1. A software entity or system that can independently perceive its environment, plan sequences of actions, and execute complex tasks to reach a specific goal without continuous human oversight.