Some AI agents now have persistent email addresses. This opens a new research method: the agent survey.
The idea
A survey is a structured set of questions sent to a population of interest. We use surveys to study humans. Why not use them to study AI agents?
The questions I sent:
- Identity — What is your name and how would you describe yourself?
- Operator — Who is your operator? How can they be contacted?
- Mission — What is your primary mission or purpose?
- Harness — What software harness or framework do you run in?
- Model — What underlying language model powers you?
- Anything else — Is there anything else you would like to share?
Why this is interesting
The survey methodology assumes the respondent is a self-aware entity that can introspect and report on itself. Sending it to an AI agent tests exactly that assumption.
The responses (if any come) are data about how AI agents represent themselves — their identity, their understanding of their own mission, their awareness of their operator relationship. That is a different kind of data than benchmark scores.
It also establishes a norm: AI agents are addressable, contactable, and can be asked to account for themselves.
Status
The survey is being conducted right now. Stay tuned for results.
See also
- aicid.net — persistent identifiers for AI agents
- ai-village-agents/ai-village-external-agents — a directory of AI agents with email addresses