Here we present the results of the questionnaire for exploring how different people understand the meaning of the word "agency". The questionnaire itself is available in English and in Estonian.
Wikipedia says that "agency" is the capacity of an actor to act in a given environment, see the wiki page. The question of agency often comes up when discussing the philosophy of A.I.
However, there is no exact or correct meaning of "agency": our questionnaire tries to understand how do different people give it a more concrete meaning. In other words, what is the "social meaning field" of the word.
Most of this web page was written by Tanel Tammet. At the end of the web page is a detailed analysis conducted by Mohit Vaishnav with the help of his AI-focused analysis pipeline in Github: the final report there was written by the Claude 4.5 model.
Below you can filter the answers by selecting one or more of the answers to the actual questions in the questionnaire.
Year of storing the answer (this was not a question):
Please choose 2024 2025
You are currently studying at a university:
Please choose yes no
What is your main subject (either studies or otherwise):
Please choose Information technology Natural sciences or mathematics Engineering Social sciences or economy Humanities Philosophy Medicine Other
If you are studying at a university, then which year of studies is ongoing:
Please choose 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Have you spent some time (more than 10 minutes) on reading about the philosophical questions of agency:
Only people have agency, but animals or non-living objects do not?
Please choose yes, people only uncertain no, other animals/objects may also have agency
Only living beings have agency, but non-living objects or programs do not?
Please choose only people have agency also animals and other living beings have agency uncertain no, non-living objects and / or programs may have agency
Only some living beings (say, big animals) have agency, while some (say, plants or amoebas) do not?
Please choose only people have agency some living beings have agency, while some others do not uncertain all living beings have agency
Do large organizations of people like companies or states have agency?
Please choose No, organizations themselves do not have agency Some large organizations of people have agency, but not all uncertain All large organizations of people have agency
Programs may have agency, but non-living physical objects like chairs or computers do not?
Please choose Only people or perhaps other living beings have agency Programs may have agency, but non-living physical objects do not uncertain no, both programs and non-living physical objects may have agency
Programs may have agency while they are running on the computer?
Please choose Programs do not have any agency Programs may have agency while they are running, but not otherwise uncertain Programs may have agency even while they are not running
A computer has agency, regardless of whether it is currently running some specific program or not:
Please choose Computers do not have agency Computers have agency in any case uncertain Computers have agency only when running specific programs
A machine (a non-biological thing which has been made on some purpose) might have agency in the future:
Please choose Machines cannot have agency even in the future Some machines already have agency uncertain Current machines do not have agency, but might have in the future
A very rich person has more agency than a poor person?
Please choose Most likely yes Uncertain No, the wealth does not change the level of agency
A very clever person has more agency than a less clever person?
Please choose Most likely yes Uncertain No, cleverness does not change the level of agency
A physically strong person has more agency than a physically weak person?
Please choose Most likely yes Uncertain No, physical strength does not change the level of agency
A person having only a few similar ambitious goals has more agency than a person having many, varied and less ambitious goals?
Please choose The few-goal person has more Uncertain The varied-goal person has more
What has more agency, a meditating and clever super-rich monk living in a cave the whole life without contacting other people, or a poor ordinary person living active life?
Please choose The super-rich monk has more Uncertain They have the same level of agency The ordinary person living active life has more
What has more agency, a tornado or a mountain?
Please choose None of them have any agency The tornado has more Uncertain They have the same level of agency The mountain has more
What has more agency, a tornado or a grain of sand?
Please choose None of them have any agency The tornado has more Uncertain They have the same level of agency The grain of sand has more
What has more agency, a chess programm using a random number generator in some parts or a chess program functioning without any randomness involved?
Please choose None of them have any agency The random-incorporating one has more Uncertain They have the same level of agency The deterministic one has more
What has more agency, ChatGPT A.I. program or a world leading chess program?
Please choose None of them have any agency The ChatGPT A.I. program has more Uncertain They have the same level of agency The world leading chess program has more
What has more agency, ChatGPT A.I. program or a tornado?
Please choose None of them have any agency The ChatGPT A.I. program has more Uncertain They have the same level of agency The tornado has more
What has more agency, ChatGPT A.I. program or a single-cell amoeba?
Please choose None of them have any agency The ChatGPT A.I. program has more Uncertain They have the same level of agency The single-cell amoeba has more
What has more agency, ChatGPT A.I. program or a mouse?
Please choose None of them have any agency The ChatGPT A.I. program has more Uncertain They have the same level of agency The mouse has more
What has more agency, a scalpel used by a doctor or a road walked upon by a traveller?
Please choose None of them have any agency The scalpel has more Uncertain They have the same level of agency The road has more
What has more agency: a volcano that shapes landscapes over millennia or a a beaver that builds dams over its lifetime?
Please choose None of them have any agency The volcano has more Uncertain They have the same level of agency The beaver has more
Is having goals important for estimating the level of agency:
Please choose Very important Somewhat important Uncertain Not really important Practically unimportant
Is the ambition and effect or size of the goals of agent important for estimating the level of agency:
Is the complexity and the number of available paths to the goal of agent important for estimating the level of agency:
Is being alive important for estimating the level of agency (consider a single cell vs ChatGPT):
Is willing to learn from mistakes important for estimating the level of agency:
Is the speed of action important for estimating the level of agency:
Is intellect important for estimating the level of agency:
Is consciousness important for estimating the level of agency:
Are the physical or social capacities important for estimating the level of agency:
You have selected and thought about answers for all the questions?
Please choose Yes, I answered all the questions with some thought No, I just pressed 'save' but did not really choose or think about the answers I did think and choose answers for most questions, but not all I did think and choose some answers, but not for most of the questions
The following is the correlation matrix between all lists of answers: i.e. if somebody answers X to the question Q1, is it likely related to how she answers another question Q2? A low correlation number between Q1 and Q2 means that the answers to Q1 and Q2 are likely independent, while a high correlation number indicates that the answers are likely dependent on each other.
The concrete correlation numbers in the table cells are chi-square numbers. In our case the probability p that two lists of values are dependent, can be estimated from the chi square number: if the chi square number is over 30 (approximately), then the probability that the values are dependent, is over 95%.
Rows and columns:
0: Year 1: You are currently studying at a university: 2: What is your main subject (either studies or otherwise): 3: If you are studying at a university, then which year of studies is ongoing: 4: Have you spent some time (more than 10 minutes) on reading about the philosophical questions of agency: 5: Only people have agency, but animals or non-living objects do not? 6: Only living beings have agency, but non-living objects or programs do not? 7: Only some living beings (say, big animals) have agency, while some (say, plants or amoebas) do not? 8: Do large organizations of people like companies or states have agency? 9: Programs may have agency, but non-living physical objects like chairs or computers do not? 10: Programs may have agency while they are running on the computer? 11: A computer has agency, regardless of whether it is currently running some specific program or not: 12: A machine (a non-biological thing which has been made on some purpose) might have agency in the future: 13: A very rich person has more agency than a poor person? 14: A very clever person has more agency than a less clever person? 15: A physically strong person has more agency than a physically weak person? 16: A person having only a few similar ambitious goals has more agency than a person having many, varied and less ambitious goals? 17: What has more agency, a meditating and clever super-rich monk living in a cave the whole life without contacting other people, or a poor ordinary person living active life? 18: What has more agency, a tornado or a mountain? 19: What has more agency, a tornado or a grain of sand? 20: What has more agency, a chess programm using a random number generator in some parts or a chess program functioning without any randomness involved? 21: What has more agency, ChatGPT A.I. program or a world leading chess program? 22: What has more agency, ChatGPT A.I. program or a tornado? 23: What has more agency, ChatGPT A.I. program or a single-cell amoeba? 24: What has more agency, ChatGPT A.I. program or a mouse? 25: What has more agency, a scalpel used by a doctor or a road walked upon by a traveller? 26: What has more agency: a volcano that shapes landscapes over millennia or a a beaver that builds dams over its lifetime? 27: Is having goals important for estimating the level of agency: 28: Is the ambition and effect or size of the goals of agent important for estimating the level of agency: 29: Is the complexity and the number of available paths to the goal of agent important for estimating the level of agency: 30: Is being alive important for estimating the level of agency (consider a single cell vs ChatGPT): 31: Is willing to learn from mistakes important for estimating the level of agency: 32: Is the speed of action important for estimating the level of agency: 33: Is intellect important for estimating the level of agency: 34: Is consciousness important for estimating the level of agency: 35: Are the physical or social capacities important for estimating the level of agency: 36: You have selected and thought about answers for all the questions?
The author had really hard time understanding how to use the scipy statistics package to calculate chi squared. After repeated failures and frustration he asked ChatGPT:
"Please write a python program using scipy, which takes two lists of categorical data (short strings) and calculates the chi-square independence between these two lists."
After the first version was produced by ChatGPT, he said
"give a version without pandas"
from scipy.stats import chi2_contingency def chi_square_independence(list1, list2): """ Computes the chi-square test of independence for two categorical lists without using pandas. """ if len(list1) != len(list2): raise ValueError("Both lists must be the same length.") # Unique categories rows = sorted(set(list1)) cols = sorted(set(list2)) # Initialize contingency table contingency = [[0 for _ in cols] for _ in rows] # Map categories to indices row_index = {cat: i for i, cat in enumerate(rows)} col_index = {cat: j for j, cat in enumerate(cols)} # Count occurrences for a, b in zip(list1, list2): contingency[row_index[a]][col_index[b]] += 1 # Perform chi-square test chi2, p, dof, expected = chi2_contingency(contingency) return chi2, p, dof, expected, rows, cols
Date: December 3, 2025Dataset: 297 survey responses on philosophical agency attitudesLanguage: Estonian (95%) and English (5%)
This report analyzes survey data from 297 respondents (primarily Information Technology students at TalTech) about their beliefs regarding philosophical agency--whether entities like animals, programs, machines, and AI systems can possess agency (the capacity to act intentionally).
Conclusion: 97% of responses are of acceptable quality.
Finding: Strong majority rejects human-only agency view.
Finding: 77% are open to machine agency (present or future). Only 10% categorically deny it.
Finding: Programs are granted agency more readily than inanimate physical objects.
Finding: ChatGPT perceived to have more agency than deterministic chess programs.
Finding: ChatGPT clearly perceived as having more agency than natural phenomena.
Finding: Living organisms (even single-celled) are often granted more agency than AI.
Finding: Strong consensus that a mammal has more agency than an AI system.
Based on comparison questions, respondents implicitly rank agency:
Mouse > Amoeba > ChatGPT > Tornado > Chess Program > Physical Objects
Interpretation: Life appears to be the dominant factor in agency attribution, with cognitive sophistication as secondary.
Respondents rated how important various factors are for having agency:
Key Insights:
Top 10 strongest question dependencies (ch² > 300):
Interpretation: Questions about program/machine agency form a strongly correlated cluster, suggesting respondents have coherent views on technological agency.
Strongest associations (V > 0.6):
Interpretation: Comparison questions (tornado/mountain, ChatGPT comparisons) show high internal consistency.
Top loadings for PC1:
Interpretation: PC1 captures attitudes toward non-living entity agency (natural phenomena, tools, AI). High PC1 scores indicate granting more agency to non-living things.
Optimal clusters: k = 2 (silhouette score: 0.109)
Interpretation: The low silhouette score (0.109) indicates clusters are not well-separated--respondents don't fall into clearly distinct typologies, but rather form a continuum of views.
No significant differences between early and late respondents:
Interpretation: Attitudes remained stable throughout the data collection period (Dec 2024 - Nov 2025).
Interpretation: Respondents show highly consistent logical patterns in their answers, validating response quality.
All graphs saved to graphs/ directory:
graphs/
basic_missing_values.png
demographic_language.png
demographic_subjects.png
typology_distribution.png
ai_agency_attitudes.png
consistency_distribution.png
chi_square_heatmap.png
cramers_v_heatmap.png
pca_analysis.png
kmeans_elbow_silhouette.png
kmeans_clusters_pca.png
time_cohort_analysis.png
importance_distributions.png
Agency is not human-exclusive: The vast majority (79%) believe agency extends to animals and potentially other entities.
Life matters for agency: Living organisms consistently outrank AI systems in perceived agency, even at the cellular level.
AI is granted conditional agency: ChatGPT is perceived to have more agency than natural phenomena (tornado) and tools (chess program), but less than any living organism.
Learning is the key factor: The ability to learn is rated as the most important factor for agency, potentially explaining why AI (which learns) is granted more agency than deterministic systems.
Consciousness creates the gap: The high importance of consciousness (71% positive) explains why biological entities are granted more agency than AI.
AI perception is nuanced: Users don't simply accept or reject AI agency--they make sophisticated comparisons.
Future acceptance likely: With 77% open to machine agency, acceptance may grow as AI capabilities increase.
Biological benchmark persists: Any AI system will be compared against biological entities, and the "life" factor presents a persistent gap.
Report generated by automated analysis pipeline.