# When Intelligence Becomes Agency: A Theory of Governed, Proactive Agency for Symbiotic AI Systems

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.07741 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.07741/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 10 of its 87 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Sep 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [WebArena: A Realistic Web Environment for Building Autonomous Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.13854/) (2023)
- [SWE-agent: Agent-Computer Interfaces Enable Automated Software Engineering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.15793/) (2024)
- [World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.10122/) (2018)
- [AgentBench: Evaluating LLMs as Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.03688/) (2023)
- [Terminal-Bench: Benchmarking Agents on Hard, Realistic Tasks in Command Line Interfaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.11868/) (2026)
- [AgentDojo: A Dynamic Environment to Evaluate Prompt Injection Attacks and Defenses for LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.13352/) (2024)
- [Parallelizing Tool Execution and LLM Generation for Low-Latency Agent Serving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.18897/) (2026)
- [A Large-Scale Study on the Development and Issues of Multi-Agent AI Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.07136/) (2026)
- [OneDayAgent: Towards a Long-Horizon Harness for Autonomous Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.05013/) (2026)
- [Multi-Agent Systems Should be Treated as Principal-Agent Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.23211/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Persistent AI assistants are intended to extend human attention, memory, and coordination across changing digital and physical environments. To be truly useful they must do more than just act when asked. They must decide on their own whether a situation warrants behavior at all, when it does and in what mode, whether to act, ask, monitor, defer or deliberately refrain. We call this the activation problem. Research on commitment, appraisal, mixed-initiative interaction and delegation each illuminates part of it, but none ties situated activation to continuing authorization and accountability. This paper develops a conceptual and formal framework for governed proactive agency, organizing behavior across time through perception, intent, affective-conative appraisal, constraint, and feedback. It distinguishes autonomous and delegated agency and defines symbiotic agency as delegation under a standing, revocable mandate, with continuing coupling to the principal's situation, calibrated inference of their condition, and bounded personalization. The distinctive contribution is an integrated account linking activation decisions to authorized perception, behavior selection, authority containment, traceable restraint, and constrained adaptation, with behavioral episodes as the unit of analysis. Through an agency classification method, an evaluation framework, proposed benchmark scenarios, and a reference architecture, the account provides a basis for specifying and assessing whether assistance is warranted, timely, authorized, and answerable beyond task completion alone. It is intended to guide the development and evaluation of always-present personal assistants and embodied support systems that augment human capabilities while preserving the principal's authority and judgment.