AI Reports · Stanford HAI · 2026-10-14 · Policy position
Designing Loyalty: AI Agents and Conflicts of Interest | Stanford HAI
This brief examines the conflict-of-interest risks posed by AI agents and calls for a duty of loyalty for their developers and deployers. Agents could be steered to favor their developers' or deployers' interests over those of users, and there are currently no standard requirements for disclosing such conflicts. The brief says the duty should apply especially in higher-stakes areas such as financial services and healthcare.