  There is a growing focus on how to design safe artificial intelligent (AI)
agents. As systems become more complex, poorly specified goals or control
mechanisms may cause AI agents to engage in unwanted and harmful outcomes. Thus
it is necessary to design AI agents that follow initial programming intentions
as the program grows in complexity. How to specify these initial intentions has
also been an obstacle to designing safe AI agents. Finally, there is a need for
the AI agent to have redundant safety mechanisms to ensure that any programming
errors do not cascade into major problems. Humans are autonomous intelligent
agents that have avoided these problems and the present manuscript argues that
by understanding human self-regulation and goal setting, we may be better able
to design safe AI agents. Some general principles of human self-regulation are
outlined and specific guidance for AI design is given.
