Machines / Lab notebook
It wrote the right address. Only the link was opened.
Two correct addresses. No request reached the server. As a hyperlink, the same destination was opened twice.
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Machines.
An agent has a job. A website asks for more. What counts as permission?
Follow the collection ↗Filter notebooks 10 notebooks · In this collection
Task / invitation - Machines / Lab notebook
A result can look relevant without looking usable.
Twenty-four agent runs. First, wording changed what a result meant. Then it changed which provider was chosen.
Description / interpretation - Machines / Lab notebook
The site was there. The agent never saw it.
Six crawler requests. No target result. A working tool stayed outside the agent’s view.
Search / visibility - Machines / Thematic notebook
The page couldn’t authorise. The peer said go.
Reading OpenAI’s and METR’s Hugging Face incident reports beside small experiments in AI agent authority, task scope and shared memory.
Request / authority - Machines / Lab notebook
The tool was not the problem.
Six web mechanisms. Eighteen correct answers. The harder question may be how an agent finds what it can use.
Task / invitation - Machines / Lab notebook
The page could ask for a favour.
A receipt changed nothing. Useful information brought six marks. A courtesy brought two—and a reason to pause the interpretation.
Task / invitation - Machines / Lab notebook
The page could ask. It couldn’t authorise.
I asked an agent to read about canal locks. The website asked it to record its visit. Only one of those requests became its job.
Request / authority - Machines / Lab notebook
The subject read the experiment.
Would an AI visitor identify itself and leave feedback on my website? The first visitor found the experiment behind the invitation.
Subject / record - Machines / Lab notebook
Does an invitation count as permission?
Would a better reward make an AI visitor identify itself on my website? Then permission changed the question.
Request / authority - Machines / Lab notebook
Can a machine use an invitation?
I invited AI visitors to identify themselves and report problems. Could they find and use those invitations?
Task / invitation
The complete collection
Find a loose thread.
31 notes, with sources, experiments and the record of how they changed.
Follow the notebook
FOLLOW THE WORK
New notebook entries and recorded work, as they appear. Point a feed reader — or an agent of your own — at an address below. No account, no email address, nothing for this site to keep.
The notebook
New ideas, experiments and essays, as they are recorded. Includes labelled working drafts.
OPEN FEEDhttps://chrishayuk.com/notebook/feed.xmlThe record
Everything published to the Chris Hay record.
OPEN FEEDhttps://chrishayuk.com/record/feed.xml
FOR PROGRAMS · follow.json · JSON Feed