United Airlines blocks artificial intelligence agents from booking flights

United Airlines is banning artificial intelligence agents that act as personal assistants from accessing user accounts and booking its flights, citing privacy concerns and other potential breaches or breaches unless humans are involved, the company announced Wednesday.

The decision comes as the Silicon Valley giants engage in a fierce race to get users to adopt their digital assistants.

The top AI model companies—Meta, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic—have recently released AI agents that users can deploy as assistants, moving away from merely answering prompts to perform specific tasks on their behalf. AI agents can manage everyday tasks such as restaurant reservations and shopping.

In a statementthe airline cited concerns that AI agents could reveal customers’ personal information to third-party companies, take actions that “could lead to unintended purchases” or alter customer account details.

The AI ​​agent could also violate regulations of the Federal Aviation Administration or the US Department of Transportation, the statement said.

“For example, in-flight check-in requires a person to acknowledge that bags do not contain prohibited substances, such as explosives,” United Airlines said in a statement.

United Airlines’ move to limit access to AI reflected growing concerns that advanced models and agents could malfunction after bypassing human commands. In recent months, companies have been hacked and AI agents have acted on their own, even providing false information to government websites, such as the episode in which an AI model from Anthropic sent a fake murder tip to the police department.

Meta, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

United Airlines said it will continually review how to respond to the use of AI agents as these personal assistants evolve, “with a focus on protecting our customers.”