autonomously

[aw-ton-uh-muhs-lee]

adverb

1. in a way that is self-governing or free of outside control; independently.

   The ideal candidate will be able to work autonomously and without supervision.

2. with little or no human control or intervention.

   We have developed a service robot that operates autonomously, in concert with a network of devices in its environment.

3. Biology.

   1. as an independent organism.

      Viruses, on the boundary between living and nonliving, cannot autonomously reproduce but require the biochemistry and structure of a host cell.

   2. naturally or spontaneously, without cultivation.

      They organized a work day to get rid of the plants growing wildly, autonomously, and unwantedly all around the building.

Other Word Forms

• nonautonomously adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of autonomously¹

autonomous ( def. ) + -ly

Example Sentences

AI shopping agents, which can act autonomously on behalf of users, are in the early stages of adoption and development.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has detected and disrupted what it described as the first documented cyber espionage campaign conducted largely autonomously by AI, marking a significant escalation in machine learning-enabled attacks.

Read more on Barron's

Hackers then built an unspecified programme using Claude's coding assistance to "autonomously compromise a chosen target with little human involvement".

Read more on BBC

Though initially remotely operated by a human, many of Coco Robotics’ bots now operate autonomously with the help of artificial intelligence.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

It could also use Amazon’s central-processing units, or CPUs, to power what is called agentic AI, where the technology completes tasks autonomously.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• freely 
• individually 
• separately