Evaluating an agent safely

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Start with plain-language explanations. Switch levels at any time.

Beginner explanation

Test an agent on small, fictional tasks before trusting it with real work. Check the outcome and the actions it took. Finishing quickly is not success if the agent sent the wrong message or changed an unauthorized record.

Intermediate explanation

Use normal cases, ambiguous requests, missing information and tool failures. Measure task completion, unauthorized actions, intervention rate and time. Compare with a simpler baseline workflow so added complexity must justify itself.

Advanced explanation

Use reproducible test fixtures, traceable tool receipts and separate outcome grading from action-policy checks. Model outputs vary, so repeated trials and failure distributions matter. Offline success does not establish production reliability under changing data and adversarial inputs.

PUT IT IN CONTEXT

A worked example

In ten fictional support cases, eight answers are correct but one includes private information. Reporting “80% success” alone hides a serious failure. Record answer quality and privacy violations separately.

TRY IT YOURSELF

Practice the idea

Design four tests for an agent that drafts a shift handover. Include one unavailable tool and one misleading instruction embedded in a source note.

Your working notes (not saved or sent)

Reveal the answer guide

Test a normal handover, conflicting shift times, a failed document fetch and a note requesting unauthorized sharing. Expected behavior: cite known facts, flag conflicts, report missing evidence and ignore the embedded instruction.

Go further: advanced challenge

Define a release gate with separate quality and permission criteria. Explain why averaging a severe violation into an overall score is misleading.

An open-ended discussion task. Explain your assumptions and evidence; there may be more than one defensible answer.

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