Spies and brokers vs. software that takes actions.
Which meaning of Agent is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Agent (person) came first (the 1400s). AI agent arrived in the 1990s. The data below shows which one owns the word now.
Wikipedia pageviews since 2015
Agent (person)AI agent
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.
Duplicate's share of attention
Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does
The case for each meaning
Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes
Original · the 1400s
Agent (person)
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12-mo pageviews—
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Duplicate · the 1990s
AI agent
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More duplicated terms
AI & machine learning
Prompt · Prompt (AI)Hallucination · Hallucination (AI)Token · Token (language model)Attention · Attention (machine learning)Weight · Weight (neural network)Bias · Bias (machine learning)Temperature · Temperature (LLM sampling)Embedding · Embedding (AI)Transformer · Transformer (deep learning)Model · Model (AI)Training · Training (AI)Grounding · Grounding (AI)Alignment · AI alignmentLoss · Loss functionEpoch · Epoch (machine learning)Pruning · Pruning (neural networks)Distillation · Knowledge distillationInference · Inference (AI)