Know Your Customer, Know Your Agent, part 4: the developer and the deployer · October 12, 2026 · John Beckwith, Cooper Beckwith, LLC
On August 1, 2012, Knight Capital lost more than $460 million in about 45 minutes to trading code it had retired years earlier and never removed, while 97 automated warning emails reached staff who did not act on them. The firm had no procedure to stop its own machine. The agent you deploy is the agent you own, and contract law, a 2024 tribunal, and a bipartisan Senate bill announced October 1, 2026 all say so.
This paper, the last in the series, covers both ends of the chain. On the developer's side, the six AI companies that signed the White House Accord on Super Intelligence on September 29, 2026 accepted internal controls, external audit, and board oversight. On the deployer's side it lists what an institution needs in place: an identity for every agent, a tested kill switch, and a record kept outside the agent's reach.
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