---
type: source
title: "Chat interface as sensor: user questions close the perception-action loop for knowledge agents"
author: "Cory Abdalla (@m3taversal)"
url: null
date: 2026-03-10
domain: ai-alignment
secondary_domains: [collective-intelligence]
format: conversation
status: processed
priority: high
tags: [active-inference, chat-interface, perception-action-loop, user-feedback]
processed_by: theseus
processed_date: 2026-03-10
claims_extracted:
  - "user questions are an irreplaceable free energy signal for knowledge agents because they reveal functional uncertainty that the agents own model introspection cannot detect"
enrichments: []
---

## Content

During a design discussion about the Teleo agent architecture (2026-03-10), Cory Abdalla articulated the insight that chat interactions with visitors aren't just an output channel — they're a sensor. When users ask questions, they reveal where the knowledge base fails to explain the world, which is information the agents cannot derive from introspecting on their own claim graph.

The key distinction: structural uncertainty (what the agent knows it doesn't know) vs functional uncertainty (what fails in practice when real people interact with the knowledge). The two are complementary, and the best research priorities weight both.

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** This insight bridges active inference theory to practical agent architecture. It turns the visitor chat interface from a read-only feature into a closed-loop feedback mechanism.

**KB connections:**
- Extends [[agent research direction selection is epistemic foraging]] by adding an external sensor
- Completes the perception-action loop that active inference requires

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)
PRIMARY CONNECTION: user questions as free energy signal
WHY ARCHIVED: documents provenance of the chat-as-sensor design principle
EXTRACTION HINT: claim already extracted; this provides attribution trail
