"Autonomous" (in the true sense of the word) agent is a misnomer.
To claim true autonomy is to declare a creation of consciousness. This will never be brought to reality by human minds alone.
How about this: the creation of an 'autonomous' agent, which would send "donations" to a Presidential candidate, or the CEO of a large corporation.
Or, one can commit a crime, such as robbery, and have two 'autonomous' agents as witnesses for an alibi, or as witnesses that someone else committed the crime.
Largely, many efforts to create autonomy stem from self-centered goals. So, even if we could create consciousness, the agents we would create will undoubtedly be destructive and disruptive in general to human society.
The world today is already overburdened with crime, fraud, oppression and injustice. Now give to every criminal, dictator and thief the ability to spawn an unlimited number of agents to do their bidding.
