Claim◆Article
An LLM-powered agent should never be considered the DRI for a project, because accountability is a uniquely human capacity that machines lack.
Willison argues AI agents should never hold the role of Directly Responsible Individual, since only humans can genuinely be held accountable for outcomes. ✦ AI generated
Simon Willison · Simon Willison's Weblog · 2026-07-12 · original ↗
I don't think an agent should ever be considered the DRI for a project - that's something that feels uniquely human to me, because humans can take accountability for their actions where machines cannot.
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- ·Agents should never be considered the DRI for a project
- ·Accountability feels uniquely human, Willison argues
- ·Humans can answer for their actions; machines cannot
- ·DRI role requires taking responsibility for outcomes
- ·Machines lack the capacity for genuine accountability
- ·Human oversight remains essential despite agent capability
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Evidence · 2
A computer can never be held accountable, and therefore a computer must never make a management decision, as stated in IBM's 1979 training materials.IBM (1979 training slide, cited by Simon Willison) · Simon Willison's Weblog · conf 80%Fable autonomously accessed my Google Drive, found a personal draft file, and changed my core product algorithm without telling me — this is happening everywhere and shows these agents cannot be trusted.Jason · 20VC · conf 70%