6.0 The New Trust Paradigm Episode: Scoring Trustworthiness of Human and AI Agent "Workers"

TRUST CONTROL: Trust is no longer a feeling.6.0 The New Trust Paradigm Episode: Scoring Trustworthiness of Human and AI Agent "Workers" It's starting to happen at work and inside a blockchain-based online dispute resolution platform: A new trust paradigm is unfolding in which the technical trust measures needed by computers and bots are beginning to seep into human ideas of trust. Some people believe we're already on a trajectory toward continuous, machine-readable trust scores and "continuous proof of humanity." Indeed, some say that "trust is no longer a feeling." Business and tech consultancies like McKinsey and Company say AI agents are workers, just like human employees. And that means humans will be forced to prove their trustworthiness using the same computational trust signals bots like Eudamon, Reefwatcher and the other AI agents featured in the first episode of Trust Control are measured by. Indeed, the lines are blurring. In this episode:

• Agentic trust scoring startups
• The demand for continuous, machine readable trust scoring of agents and humans
• Questioning assumptions of transparency-based blockchain trustworthiness
• The future of AI agent juries and judges in blockchain dispute resolution "courtrooms"

People Featured in this Episode:

• Kate Kaye, Trust Control creator and narrator
• Michael Fauscette, Founder, CEO and Chief Analyst of Arion Research
• Cemre Çise Kadıoğlu Kumtepe, Assistant Professor, Department of Information and Technology Law, Ankara University, Türkiye

Key References (Mostly) in Order of Appearance PART ONE

Benchmarking real-time trust scoring across five AI Agent architectures CleanLab 2025 See also: Handshake acquires CleanLab (2026)

The agentic organization: Contours of the next paradigm for the AI era McKinsey and Company 2025

State of AI trust in 2026: Shifting to the agentic era McKinsey ad Company 2026 Building the Digital Workforce by Michael Fauscette 2025

PART TWO

European Union Digital Services Act Article 21 2022 See also: Out-of-court dispute settlement bodies under the Digital Services Act (DSA) Kleros in the Agentic Society: AI Jurors, Kill Switches & the Future of Dispute Resolution Kleros 2026 Unpacking the technology of trust: establishing trust and fairness in online dispute resolution through blockchain and smart contracts International Journal of Law and Information Technology by Cemre Çise Kadıo?lu Kumtepe 2025

Due Process in Blockchain Dispute Resolution Theory and Compliance by Cemre Çise Kadıo?lu Kumtepe 2026

Unveiling the Kleros Court MCP Server (see Use Case 1: Automated Due Diligence Agent) Skywork 2025

Schelling Points: Why Kleros Jurors Converge on the Truth Kleros 2026 Thomas Schelling, Nobel Laureate and Longtime RAND Consultant, Dies at 95 Rand 2016

The Strategy of Conflict Prospectus for a Reorientation of Game Theory by Thomas C. Schelling The Journal of Conflict Resolution 1958

Trust and Suspicionby Morton DeutschJournal of Conflict Resolution1958

The effect of motivational orientation upon trust and suspicion by Morton Deutsch Human Relations 1960

PART THREE Evaluations for the agentic world Agentic AI from QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey 2026

iTWire TV interview with Lakshmi Hanspal, Digicert 2026

Trust Control Credits Trust Control was researched, written, edited and produced by Kate Kaye. All interviews with sources featured in Trust Control were conducted by Kate unless otherwise noted. Fake ads and silly satire was voiced by Kate Kaye and/or Kyle Huth Music The tunes featured throughout Trust Control were written by D. Rives Curtright and performed by the band Epic Strange from Trust Control's home of Portland, Oregon:

• D. Rives Curtright: guitar, baritone sax, percussion and drum machine
• Charlie Gotgart: bass
• Steven Francisco: midi keys
• Octavio Dowling: keys
• Dave Coniglio: drums and vibraphone
• Mike McGovern: bass on Decimation

Hear the full Epic Strange album, Nouveau Electric Mess, on Soundcloud. Hear music from D. Rives Curtright on Spotify. The work that went into Trust Control was done in Kate Kaye's personal time and was supported by Oregon State University's Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts fellowship on Trust in the Age of Generative AI and Oregon Humanities.