Patent ID: 7516112

Claim:
A method of generating an intelligent agent, comprising: a developer using an agent-generating software tool that executes on a data processing platform to construct an intelligent agent, including using the software tool to load a site into an agent substrate; the developer specifying security parameters that are to be implemented by the agent-generating software tool; and during said first-mentioned using step, the software tool evaluating the data processing platform to assess a risk factor associated with constructing the intelligent agent on the data processing platform; the method further comprising giving the intelligent agent active mechanisms to actively enforce immutable integrity policies and constraints on the agent's lifecycle properties, through introspection into the agent's environment, throughout the agent's lifecycle phases of specification, design, construction, coding, testing, deployment, and decommissioning; wherein said policies and constraints are protected by the agent at all phases of its lifecycle, and strict authorizations are enforced for changes from programmers, users, administrators, and other potentially malicious or disruptive entities it encounters during its lifecycle; thereby increasing the confidence in systems that use the intelligent agent for national security and high-consequence applications.