The most empathetic academy. Two projects on designing AI agents for a specific person — not for "users" — and figuring out the rules: when should the agent act? When should it ask? When should it refuse?
An agent isn't just a chatbot. An agent is a system that takes action on someone's behalf — schedules things, sends messages, picks options. Which means the design decisions matter. An agent that misjudges your grandmother is a worse problem than a chatbot that gets a fact wrong.
This academy refuses to let you build an agent for "users." Both projects are about one specific person, watched, designed for, with rules for when the agent should not act.
"Should this agent exist at all?"
Most agents that can be built shouldn't be. By project two you'll have a list of things your agent will not do — even if the user asks. Spending money. Deleting things. Speaking as someone they're not. The most useful instinct you'll grow here is the instinct to build less.
And note: at this level, you design the agent, you don't build it. Live agents that take real action need lots of safety scaffolding — that's what high school is for.
Pick someone real. Watch them for 3 days — what do they actually do? Not what you assume. Take notes in a strict format. Then write the agent spec: what it would do, what it wouldn't.
You ship → 3-day field notes + 1 agent spec with a "does" list and a "does NOT" list.
Take your spec. Add 3 permission tiers (suggest only / ask first / do it). Write 3 disagreement scenarios — what happens when the user asks for something the agent thinks is a mistake. Write the refusal language so it sounds like care, not like a wall.
You ship → permission tiers + 3 written scenarios + refusal language read aloud to the user, with their explicit "yes, those rules feel right."
A spec for an agent designed for one specific person. The instinct to build less. The vocabulary to argue for an agent that refuses politely. And the trust of one person, because you watched them and built something thoughtful for them. That's a foundation any career rests on.