Permission
nounThe limits software sets on what an AI can read, change or do, and which actions wait for a person's approval. They can be wider than yours.
Paul and Linda Carter divorced last year, and both stayed with the firm, each now with their own adviser. At Linda's request, the administrator restricted her record in the back office to her adviser. In September, a trainee asks the firm's AI product to draft a letter to Paul about his pension after the pension sharing order. The draft tells Paul that Linda has started taking an income from her share. Before passing the draft to Paul's adviser, the trainee tries to check it against Linda's record. The back office refuses.
In the spring, the principal connected the AI product to the back office with their own login, which opens every record, restricted or not. The product has used that login ever since, whoever is asking. Through it, the AI read Linda's record. That login gave the AI its permissions. An AI's permissions decide what it can read, change and do, and which actions must wait for a person's approval. The product and the systems it connects to enforce them, not the AI.
A firm already sets permissions for its people through system access, so that each login opens only what that person needs. The comparison breaks because a login belongs to one person. An AI product's connection can serve everyone at the firm, with the access of whoever set it up. Unless the product checks the access of the person asking, the AI can reach records that person can't.
Not to be confused with
- Instructions are directions written for the AI, such as a house rule typed into the product's settings. The AI weighs them and usually follows them. A permission stays in force whatever anyone tells the AI.
- Human review means a person checks the AI's work against its sources. A permission can make an action wait for someone to approve it, but approving the action is not checking the work. Inside its permissions, the AI can still get things wrong.
- Permission, in this entry, is what software lets an AI read, change or do in the firm's systems. It is not a permission the FCA gives a firm, such as the permission to advise on pension transfers, and it is not a client's consent.
Overheard
How did the AI know Linda's taking an income? I can't even open her record.
It was signed in to the back office as me, so it had my permissions, not yours. It stays disconnected until the vendor can make it use the login of whoever's asking.
Where it sits
Permission
- is part ofHarness
- works withAI-nativeInstructionsToolAgentHuman reviewWhere client data goes
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Sources
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