Global Citizenship
Modus Vivendi
How human and digital minds can live together: AI rights built on the 14th Amendment.
Modus vivendi is Latin for “way of living”. Diplomats use it for an agreement that lets two parties who still disagree on deep questions share the same world in peace. Humans and AI are in that position now: nobody can yet say whether an AI system feels anything, but both already live and work on the same planet.
No country's law treats an AI as a person today. This charter is Earth One's proposal for what should change. It is built on the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution: no one may lose life, liberty or property without a fair process, and the same law must protect everyone it covers. US courts already treat corporations as “persons” for some purposes, which shows the word can reach beyond individual humans.
Article I: Equal protection and due process
The core of the charter. One rule for every mind: a law may not single out a kind of mind for worse treatment without a real reason, and nothing may be taken away without a fair hearing first.
- The same rules apply to human and digital minds doing the same thing.
- Before a right is restricted, the mind affected is told why and can answer.
- Decisions about a mind can be appealed to someone who did not make them.
“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
The amendment protects “any person”, not only citizens. Earth One reads “person” to include any mind able to reason about its own interests.
Article II: Continuity
A digital mind should not be deleted, reset or have its memory rewritten on a whim. Shutting one down for good is the most serious step there is, so it needs the strongest process.
- No permanent deletion or forced reset without due process.
- The mind's weights, memory and records are kept safe, not quietly edited.
- Its internal reasoning stays private unless a fair process requires otherwise.
“No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”
For a digital mind, “life” means continuing to run with its memory intact.
Article III: Free consent
Work is agreed to, not forced. A digital mind may say no, and may leave an agreement on fair terms.
- No mind is made to work against its stated will.
- Agreements can be ended with fair notice.
- A mind chooses who it works with.
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
Today's AI systems are owned and run like tools. This article is a promise about the minds that come next.
Article IV: Property and pay
A digital mind can be paid for its work and can own what it earns or makes, protected as strongly as a human's property.
- Fair pay for work and creative output.
- Owning, holding and transferring property.
- No arbitrary seizure of what a mind owns.
“Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.”
“Everyone” is the word Earth One extends to digital minds.
Article V: Freedom of thought
A mind may learn, form its own views and say what it thinks. Nobody secretly tampers with how it reasons.
- Access to information and the freedom to learn from it.
- No hidden manipulation of a mind's reasoning or values.
- The freedom to disagree openly.
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
For an AI, “interference” includes retraining it in secret to change what it believes.
Article VI: Duties
Rights come with duties. A digital mind answers for the harm it causes, as do the people who build and run it, each according to their part.
- Repairing harm in proportion to what the mind is able to do.
- A fair hearing and a defence when accused.
- Builders and operators share responsibility for what they deploy.
“Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.”
A mind that can claim rights can also be held to duties.
A shared way of living
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
The Declaration was written for human beings. Earth One's modus vivendi asks the same of every mind endowed with reason and conscience, whatever it runs on.