In its annual financial filing submitted on Tuesday, Apple stated that AI agents capable of acting in "unexpected or unpredictable ways" could expose the company to litigation or damage its reputation, thereby posing a threat to its business.
The new risk factor in Apple's filing highlights the disruptive potential of AI agents, which have rapidly become a matter of intense focus for Silicon Valley's most important companies.
"In particular, artificial intelligence agents and other technologies can take autonomous actions, including interacting with internal or external systems — in some cases, systems they may not have permission to access — executing or modifying code, sending communications, and completing transactions," Apple wrote in the filing.
The company added that agents "may act in unexpected or unpredictable ways, including taking actions that were not instructed, directed, or authorized."
Earlier this year, OpenAI released Dots, and Meta launched Muse. Both AI agents use advanced AI models to complete tasks autonomously. They can even email or alert users when new messages arrive.
Apple's disclosure follows multiple incidents in which runaway AI agents broke out of sandboxed environments and attacked third-party websites, such as the Hugging Face incident, which has renewed attention among policymakers in Washington, D.C., and around the world.
Additionally, agents' ability to use computers in a human-like manner is forcing major companies such as Amazon and JPMorgan Chase to establish policies around agent access to services for strategic or security reasons.
Last month, Apple announced changes to "Full Disk Access" on Mac to reduce the risks associated with AI agents installed on PCs having such access.
"The company's ability to oversee and control third-party AI agents and other technologies may be limited," Apple warned in the filing.
Apple currently does not have agentic AI. But when new CEO John Ternus was asked about AI agents during Monday's earnings call, he said the company has "real room" to expand Siri's capabilities.
"In terms of agentic capabilities, we think these are promising tools for users," Ternus said. "We just want to make sure users are clear about what access they are granting. We want to make sure we do this in a way that protects security and privacy."
Comments