# Build Agent Advocates, Not Platform Agents

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.04345 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.04345/

## Key facts

- Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 31 of its 104 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 May 2025.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [General LLM agent frameworks and benchmarks](https://mlsanity.com/agents/general-llm-agent-frameworks-and-benchmarks/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 31)

- [Training language models to follow instructions with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02155/) (2022)
- [A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.11432/) (2023)
- [Jailbroken: How Does LLM Safety Training Fail?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.02483/) (2023)
- [OLMo: Accelerating the Science of Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.00838/) (2024)
- [Language Agent Tree Search Unifies Reasoning Acting and Planning in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04406/) (2023)
- [AgentHarm: A Benchmark for Measuring Harmfulness of LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.09024/) (2024)
- [Cognitive Architectures for Language Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.02427/) (2023)
- [The Alignment Problem from a Deep Learning Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.00626/) (2022)
- [AI Agents That Matter](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.01502/) (2024)
- [Foundational Challenges in Assuring Alignment and Safety of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.09932/) (2024)
- [Open Problems in Cooperative AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.08630/) (2020)
- [Co-Writing with Opinionated Language Models Affects Users' Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.00560/) (2023)
- [Harms from Increasingly Agentic Algorithmic Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.10329/) (2023)
- [Secret Collusion among AI Agents: Multi-Agent Deception via Steganography](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.07510/) (2024)
- [The Ethics of Advanced AI Assistants](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16244/) (2024)
- [A Comprehensive Study of Jailbreak Attack versus Defense for Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.13457/) (2024)
- [SafeArena: Evaluating the Safety of Autonomous Web Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.04957/) (2025)
- [Superintelligent Agents Pose Catastrophic Risks: Can Scientist AI Offer a Safer Path?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.15657/) (2025)
- [On the Societal Impact of Open Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.07918/) (2024)
- [A Scalable Communication Protocol for Networks of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.11905/) (2024)
- [Fully Autonomous AI Agents Should Not be Developed](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.02649/) (2025)
- [Characterizing Manipulation from AI Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.09387/) (2023)
- [Personhood credentials: Artificial intelligence and the value of privacy-preserving tools to distinguish who is real online](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.07892/) (2024)
- [The Rise of the AI Co-Pilot: Lessons for Design from Aviation and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.14713/) (2023)
- [The AI Agent Index](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.01635/) (2025)
- [Decentralized Governance of Autonomous AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.17114/) (2024)
- [Designing Fiduciary Artificial Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.02435/) (2023)
- [AI loyalty: A New Paradigm for Aligning Stakeholder Interests](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.11157/) (2020)
- [Lessons from complexity theory for AI governance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.00012/) (2025)
- [Data-Centric AI Governance: Addressing the Limitations of Model-Focused Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.17216/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [The 2025 AI Agent Index: Documenting Technical and Safety Features of Deployed Agentic AI Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.17753/) (2026)
- [Position: Collaborative Agentic AI Needs Interoperability Across Ecosystems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.21550/) (2025)
- [SoK: Security of Autonomous LLM Agents in Agentic Commerce](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.15367/) (2026)
- [Harness Engineering: Anatomy, Architecture, and Evolution of Coding Agents -- A Source-Code Study of Eleven Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.00006/) (2026)
- [Superplatforms Have to Attack AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.17861/) (2025)
- [Agentic Inequality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.16853/) (2025)
- [The 2025 OpenAI Preparedness Framework does not guarantee any AI risk mitigation practices: a proof-of-concept for affordance analyses of AI safety policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.24394/) (2025)
- [An Investigation of the NeurIPS and ICML 2025 Position Tracks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.16894/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Language model agents are poised to mediate how people navigate and act online. If the companies that already dominate internet search, communication, and commerce -- or the firms trying to unseat them -- control these agents, the resulting platform agents will likely deepen surveillance, tighten lock-in, and further entrench incumbents. To resist that trajectory, this position paper argues that we should promote agent advocates: user-controlled agents that safeguard individual autonomy and choice. Doing so demands three coordinated moves: broad public access to both compute and capable AI models that are not platform-owned, open interoperability and safety standards, and market regulation that prevents platforms from foreclosing competition.