Definition
Plain language
An AI that answers a question by searching, reading, and searching again over many steps, instead of replying in one shot.
As stated in the literature
An agent that runs a multi-step search-read-decide loop to assemble an answer, often fusing private internal documents with open-web retrieval; the setting in which query-trail privacy leakage is studied.
Also called: deep research agents
Why it matters: Its step-by-step searching lets it answer hard questions a single reply can't, but those very search queries can accidentally expose private information.
For example, asked who supplies a company's main competitor, it searches the web, reads a few results, refines its query, and searches again before answering.
Heard on the show
“And it matters because these deep research agents — the ones that browse the web and write you a synthesized answer with citations — are being pitched as front-ends for real work.”Episode 224 — The AI Agent That Found the Truth and Typed the Lie Anyway