Reinventing Control Theory One Feature at a Time: The Fallacy of Agentic Loops
2 days ago
- #AI Governance
- #Agentic Loops
- #Control Theory
- The AI coding assistant market is experiencing a shift towards 'agentic loops,' where agents monitor, review, fix, and iterate in continuous cycles, increasing complexity and token usage.
- This trend represents a fragmented rediscovery of classical Control Theory, with features like hooks, rules, and review agents being sold without comprehensive safety methodologies.
- A control system requires explicit design of signals, boundaries, authority, fallback paths, and stop conditions to be reliable, not just probabilistic agents checking each other.
- Real control frameworks force leadership to answer uncomfortable questions about objectives, acceptable deviations, risk, accountability, and stopping conditions before deployment.
- These constraints are harder to sell than the simplistic promise of adding agents but are crucial for maturing AI-assisted engineering into an enterprise-grade model.