Perplexity makes its SPACE agent sandbox open source

On October 15, Perplexity made SPACE open source. SPACE is a sandbox, a closed space for an AI agent. The agent can work with code and files in it, but cannot go to the host system or to sensitive data. Perplexity started SPACE in July. It reports that SPACE at this time operates all sessions of its Computer assistant. It makes millions of new sandboxes each day.

How it works

Each sandbox is in a small virtual machine. The machine has system software. Developers can stop and start a session. They can use a condition from before again, and make different workspaces to test other methods. SPACE has controls for network access and for credentials.

The numbers

In a safety test by Perplexity, none of 108 attacks went to the host system. The network limits did not stop some of the first tests. Perplexity reports that it did a repair of the weak points, and that the attacks then did not work.

What is not known

No other group reports a check of the test. Perplexity tells that a model cannot be the only protection, because a model cannot always obey safety rules. The system around the model must also limit it.

Insight: Sandbox makers now give their walls away

AWS made its Strands Box sandbox open source on October 12. Perplexity did the same with SPACE on October 15. CoreWeave, Akamai and Crusoe will give SPACE to their users. Maybe this is a race to hold the safety wall around agents, because the first wall that many developers use can set the rules. A sandbox that a team can replace is a lower risk.