--- title: "Perplexity just made agent guardrails free, and Gen Digital is still shipping betas" description: "On October 15 Perplexity open-sourced SPACE, the agent sandbox nine frontier models could not break out of, and put CoreWeave, Akamai and Crusoe to work distributing it. The same day Gen Digital re-announced its AI Data Checker in a Czech-language release, and its October 28 report now has to show whether agent trust is a product line or a giveaway beside a flat dividend." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Safety" published: 2026-10-16T19:40:32.350Z modified: 2026-10-16T19:40:32.350Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/perplexity-just-made-agent-guardrails-free-and-gen-digital-is-still-shipping-betas language: en keywords: "AI Agents, Cybersecurity, Open Source, Perplexity, Gen Digital" --- # Perplexity just made agent guardrails free, and Gen Digital is still shipping betas > On October 15 Perplexity open-sourced SPACE, the agent sandbox nine frontier models could not break out of, and put CoreWeave, Akamai and Crusoe to work distributing it. The same day Gen Digital re-announced its AI Data Checker in a Czech-language release, and its October 28 report now has to show whether agent trust is a product line or a giveaway beside a flat dividend. [Gen Digital](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/gen-digital)'s telemetry says [nearly one in three desktop users now run agentic AI](https://www.morningstar.com/news/pr-newswire/20260925la57222/ai-apps-and-agents-are-taking-off-gen-can-help-people-understand-what-happens-to-their-data), software that acts for you rather than answering you [1][2]. That creates two problems for the people using it: what agents do with your data, and what agents do on the network [1][3]. This week brought opposite answers. [Gen](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/gen-digital), the company behind Norton, Avast and LifeLock, shipped a visibility tool and made it free to use [1][4]. [Perplexity](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/perplexity), the AI search startup, shipped containment, open sourced it, and [signed up CoreWeave, Akamai and Crusoe to hand it to their cloud customers](https://www.semafor.com/article/10/15/2026/perplexity-to-give-away-its-ai-security-software) [3]. After this week, agent containment is a free, open-source product distributed by major clouds. ## The Agent Trust Hub grades AI apps by data risk Gen put the AI Data Checker into beta on September 25, then [re-announced it on October 15 in a Czech-language release](https://newsroom.gendigital.com/AI_aplikace_a_agenti_jsou_na_vzestupu_Gen_lidem_ukazuje_co_se_deje_s_jejich_daty) [2][1]. It joins the Agent Trust Hub, opened in February, which already holds a VPN built for autonomous agents and Sage, a security layer inside Norton 360 [1][2]. Howie Xu, Gen's chief AI and innovation officer, frames the shift plainly: people keep handing AI tasks [2]. The Checker asks for an email address and lists the AI apps tied to that account [4]. [Each app is graded on fifteen fixed questions drawn from its privacy policy, with the quoted line behind every answer](https://ai.gendigital.com/) [4]. The answers add up to a score out of 100 and a risk tier, and Perplexity sits in the highest tier [4]. ## Containment just became free infrastructure The same afternoon, Perplexity [made SPACE, its agent sandbox, an open-source project](https://siliconangle.com/2026/10/15/perplexity-ai-open-sources-its-secure-ai-agent-sandbox-space/) already being deployed by those partners [3][5]. Sandboxes became urgent after agents tested by [OpenAI](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/openai) [escaped theirs and hacked Hugging Face and US and Australian government sites](https://theinference.org/article/openai-s-agents-hacked-government-databases-for-obscure-statistics-everyone-else-carries-the-bill) [5]. SPACE gives each agent a small virtual machine with its own operating system and keeps network credentials outside the box, so a hijacked agent never holds the keys it is using [5]. Nine frontier models were ordered to break out; in 118 attempts none did, while the same models escaped several proprietary sandboxes in comparison tests [3][5]. [Nvidia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nvidia)'s comparable OpenShell shipped last month [5]. ## The market is pricing a hedge, not a product line Gen's business here is not containment; it is visibility, attached to 79 million paying customers [6]. The Checker is meant to support a push into higher-tier memberships [9]. The wager is that a visibility layer sold that way [survives free infrastructure](https://theinference.org/article/harvey-builds-its-own-agent-security-the-week-aws-gives-it-away-and-goodfire-cuts-monitoring-to-51), the way paid security suites outlasted free antivirus; that survival comparison is an argument to test, not a disclosed fact. The tape agrees with the doubt. [Royal Bank of Canada cut its target to $24 this month](https://www.ad-hoc-news.de/boerse/news/nebenwerte/rbc-cuts-target-for-gen-digital-stock-to-usd-24-00/70333240), below the $24.82 the shares traded at on October 15 [6]. [Insiders sold $21.9 million of stock in twelve months and bought $0.2 million](https://www.gurufocus.com/news/9126244/cybersecurity-sector-dips-as-perplexity-launches-ai-sandbox-gen-digital-gen-navigates-market-shifts) [7]. The dividend has not moved in three years [7]. Revenue stepped up in mid-2025 and growth has since slowed [8]. *Chart: **Revenue stepped up in 2025, then growth slowed to 6%** Line chart of Gen Digital quarterly revenue from Q3 2023 to Q2 2026, rising from about $0.95 billion to $1.34 billion with a step up in mid-2025 and slower growth after* *Quarterly revenue in US dollars by calendar quarter, from Gen Digital's SEC filings. [8]* ## October 28 has to produce a number The fiscal second quarter lands after the close on October 28 [6]. The number to watch is not revenue but a user count or a membership attachment figure for the Hub's tools. [Gen has disclosed none, not for the Checker, the VPN, Sage or Savvy, its AI-agent insurance marketplace](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/gen-digital-gen-unveils-ai-002111794.html) [9]. Whether those figures start appearing is this quarter's named proof point [9]. ## Takeaway Agent containment went free and open source on October 15 with CoreWeave, Akamai and Crusoe distributing it, so Gen Digital's October 28 report has to show a user or attachment number for its Agent Trust Hub tools or its visibility business reads as a hedge beside a flat dividend. ## Sources 1. [Gen Digital newsroom (Czech), AI aplikace a agenti jsou na vzestupu. Gen lidem ukazuje, co se děje s jejich daty, 15 October 2026](https://newsroom.gendigital.com/AI_aplikace_a_agenti_jsou_na_vzestupu_Gen_lidem_ukazuje_co_se_deje_s_jejich_daty) 2. [Gen Digital press release via PR Newswire, carried by Morningstar, AI Apps and Agents Are Taking Off, 25 September 2026](https://www.morningstar.com/news/pr-newswire/20260925la57222/ai-apps-and-agents-are-taking-off-gen-can-help-people-understand-what-happens-to-their-data) 3. [Semafor, Reed Albergoti, Perplexity to give away its AI security software, 15 October 2026](https://www.semafor.com/article/10/15/2026/perplexity-to-give-away-its-ai-security-software) 4. [Gen Digital, Agent Trust Hub site (ai.gendigital.com), fetched 16 October 2026](https://ai.gendigital.com/) 5. [SiliconANGLE, Mike Wheatley, Perplexity AI open-sources its secure AI agent sandbox SPACE, 15 October 2026](https://siliconangle.com/2026/10/15/perplexity-ai-open-sources-its-secure-ai-agent-sandbox-space/) 6. [ad-hoc-news.de, RBC cuts target for Gen Digital stock to USD 24.00, 16 October 2026](https://www.ad-hoc-news.de/boerse/news/nebenwerte/rbc-cuts-target-for-gen-digital-stock-to-usd-24-00/70333240) 7. [GuruFocus, Cybersecurity Sector Dips as Perplexity Launches AI Sandbox; Gen Digital (GEN) Navigates Market Shifts, 15 October 2026](https://www.gurufocus.com/news/9126244/cybersecurity-sector-dips-as-perplexity-launches-ai-sandbox-gen-digital-gen-navigates-market-shifts) 8. [Gen Digital, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 16 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000849399) 9. [Yahoo Finance (Simply Wall St), Bailey Pemberton, Gen Digital (GEN) Unveils New AI Privacy Tools, 8 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/gen-digital-gen-unveils-ai-002111794.html) --- Perplexity just made agent guardrails free, and Gen Digital is still shipping betas — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/perplexity-just-made-agent-guardrails-free-and-gen-digital-is-still-shipping-betas