Least privilege
Also called principle of least privilege, least-privilege
Giving a person, program or AI agent only the access its task needs, so a mistake or a takeover can do less damage.
Least privilege is an old security rule: every account and every program gets the access its job needs, and nothing more. Whatever it can do beyond that is what a mistake, a stolen password or a trick could do on its worst day.
AI agents make the rule more pressing. An agent picks its own next step and reads text from people you don't know, so it can be confused or talked into things. If it runs with your own token, it can do anything you can. Give it a key that only does the task, and the worst a fooled agent can do shrinks to the size of the task.
For example
A support agent that looks up orders and issues small refunds gets a token that can read orders and create refunds, not one that can also change prices or delete accounts.
Put it to use
Where you'll meet least privilege in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, how to use it there, and the mix-up most people make.
Daily Bytes Plus is in the Android app.