Modification of definition of ICO:0000220 Agent

[pfabry]

The current definition of agent is: "A material entity (either a human being or an aggregate of humans such as an organization) which is active in a process or has the relevant capabilities of intentionality."

We can think of at least one counter example: a service dog.

We therefore propose a slightly broader definition replacing humans with organism in the existing definition i.e. "A material entity (either an organism or an aggregate of organism such as an organization) which is active in a process or has the relevant capabilities of intentionality."

[jonathanvajda]

I welcome the change

But I am unsure about the use case as a reason, since I don't think even well-trained dogs are in view for the 'relevant' capacities for intentionality. It would help if there were more guidance on what is an edge case that falls out of the extension of the term vs an edge case that is included in the extension. Surely some humans are not in view, and surely most pets are not in view.

Could you give a use case for which ICO would be concerned? E.g., does any organization need to consider a service animal (or any other non human) an agent in some relevant sense?