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From Scripted Bots to Autonomous Agents: A History of AI Agent Architecture

Every era of AI agent architecture answers one question differently: what decides the next action. A 1971 planner, a learned reward signal, a prompted reasoning loop, a delegated sub-agent, and a shipped SDK are five dated, sourced answers.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 12, 2026 · 16 min read

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AI Agents & Systems

Comparing the Main Approaches to AI Agent Architecture

A single loop, a plan handed to an executor, a supervisor delegating to workers, or a graph of nodes and gated edges — four documented wiring patterns for the same underlying control problem, each with a stated price.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 12, 2026 · 17 min read

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