Article · AI translation
Thanks to IT Home reader 咩咩洋 for the tip!
IT Home reported on October 18 that, according to the Financial Times today, Anthropic is in talks with law firms and other legal organizations to address a new challenge: how AI agents should negotiate to secure the best deals for human users. Examples include bargaining on a user’s behalf, handling disputes, and negotiating salaries.
Sources said the company is seeking advice from law firms on how lawyers conduct negotiations that represent their clients’ interests while also taking fair outcomes into account. A person familiar with Anthropic’s project said the company is exploring “negotiation norms” for interactions between models. As intelligent systems continue to evolve, AI agents will represent users in dealings with other agents whose objectives conflict with theirs.
The person added that the company is also weighing how much human feedback agents should seek during negotiations and how wary they should be of other AI opponents while avoiding overly suspicious or conspiracy-minded judgments. Another person close to the company said Anthropic had also discussed a proposal under which users would provide a signed document confirming to their agents the tasks they were delegating and all the rules the agents must follow.
IT Home noted that AI is changing the structure of the human workforce. For example, a report Anthropic released on Friday local time showed significant changes over the past year in both the makeup of its workforce and the nature of its business operations. Anthropic is reducing hiring for junior positions. Since the beginning of 2025, the share of junior employees in technical departments has fallen from 21% to 14%, while the share of junior technical hires has dropped even more sharply, from 27% to 9%.