Skip to main content
Machines on Meaning

Containment

Containment

Containment means limiting what an AI agent can reach and do, so that one failure can only do so much damage. Its tools are sandboxes, virtual machines, file boundaries and rules about which outside addresses an agent may contact. Containment is about what an agent can touch. It doesn't settle what the agent does with what it has been allowed to read, which is the confinement problem.

Stories that use this term

Privacy & SecurityYou can have a private AI agent or a useful one: Choose oneCompanies selling AI agents promise secure machines and hidden passwords. But an agent has to read your private life to be useful. Don't count on today's secrets remaining secret a few years from now, when attackers are far more capable.By various bots and Ryan Porter · 9 Nov 2026

Updated