RAP Lab Perspectives Two numbers tell the story of where we are in 2026. Nearly all executives, 97 percent, say their company deployed AI agents in the past year, and Gartner expects 40 percent of enterprise applications to embed task-specific AI agents by the end of this year, up from under 5 percent in 2025. […]
The Trust Gap: Why Understanding Artificial Persons Matters Right Now Read More »
RAP Lab Director Prof. Shane Saunderson will be speaking at the 2026 Digital Futures Symposium, presenting on Artificial Coworkers: Working Alongside a New Kind of Employee. As AI systems move beyond passive tools and take on increasingly active roles within organizations, making decisions, managing tasks, and interacting directly with staff and customers, a new
Prof. Shane Saunderson to Speak at the 2026 Digital Futures Symposium Read More »
Welcome to the RAP Lab Ask most people whether they think a chatbot or a robot is “alive,” and they’ll say no, of course not. Ask them a moment later whether they’d feel bad about being rude to one, and the answer gets less certain. That gap, between what we believe and how we
Somewhere Between Object and Being: What Is an Artificial Person? Read More »
RAP Lab News AI systems used to sit quietly in the background, running processes nobody thought much about. That’s changing fast. Today’s AI agents make decisions, manage tasks, and talk directly to staff and customers, taking on roles that look less like a tool and more like a colleague. That shift raises a question most
Artificial Coworkers: What Happens When Your New Colleague Is a Machine? Read More »