agent编辑历史

**Agent (Information Technology)**

In information technology, an agent is a computer program or system that acts autonomously on behalf of a user or another program to perform tasks, gather information, or achieve goals. Agents typically exhibit characteristics such as autonomy, reactivity, proactiveness, and social ability, and are widely used in areas like web search, virtual assistants, automated trading, and multi‑agent systems.

## 1 Definition and scope

An agent is defined as an entity that senses its environment, processes information, and acts upon that environment to pursue its designated objectives. The scope of agency in computing ranges from simple scripts that execute predefined rules to complex systems capable of learning and adapting.

### 1.1 Software agent

A software agent is a program that operates on behalf of a user or another program. It is distinguished from ordinary software by its ability to perform tasks without direct human intervention, often across networked environments. Software agents may be stationary (resident on one machine) or mobile (able to migrate across nodes).

#### 1.1.1 Intelligent agent

An intelligent agent is a software agent that employs artificial intelligence techniques—such as reasoning, planning, learning, or natural language processing—to make decisions and adapt its behavior. Intelligent agents are the foundation of many modern applications, including game AI, recommendation systems, and autonomous robots.

#### 1.1.2 User agent

A user agent acts specifically on behalf of a human user to manage routine or complex tasks. Common examples include email filters, calendar schedulers, and browser helper objects. In web contexts, the term “user agent” also refers to the client software (e.g., a browser) that identifies itself to servers via HTTP headers.

### 1.2 Agent vs. object vs. component

Agents differ from objects and components in several key ways. An object in object‑oriented programming encapsula