ASIA IN BRIEF: China’s agentic AI policy wants to keep humans in the loop

China’s Cyberspace Administration last week published draft regulations governing the behavior of AI agents and suggested humans should always retain the ability to review decisions taken by software.

The draft expresses Beijing’s enthusiasm for AI agents with a call for efforts to develop datasets that accelerate development, along with security standards that make agents safe to use and ensure they behave ethically.

There’s also a call to develop mandatory standards for how agents will behave “in fields such as healthcare, transportation, media, and public safety.” China also wants to participate in international fora that develop such standards.

The draft calls for developers of AI agents to “clarify the reasonable boundaries and required authority for various decision-making methods, such as decisions limited to the user, decisions requiring user authorization, and autonomous decisions by the intelligent agent.”

Those boundaries should “Ensure that users have the right to know and ...