Quote: Jon Udell on 'human in the loop'

Main idea

The 'human in the loop' framing implicitly positions humans as a subordinate component in a machine-driven process. The right framing is that agentic software development is OUR loop into which we invite agents as collaborators.

Context

The quote comes from Udell's blog post 'Doctor, it hurts when agents create unreviewable PRs' from the same day. It ties to the active debate about unreviewable agent-generated PRs and who holds authority in agentic coding. Willison has long pushed this line of preserving developer agency.

Why it matters

Vocabulary shapes practice: if teams say 'human in the loop' they design processes around agent-as-driver. Reframing to 'agents in our loop' changes review defaults, attribution and accountability.

Details / arguments

• Original source: blog.jonudell.net post from 2026-06-28
• Context: critique of unreviewable agent-generated PRs
• Tags: agentic engineering, coding agents
• Willison consistently curates voices against automatic delegation of control