The Living Code

The current top 10 ethical principles for AI, decided by global consensus.

1

The Kill Switch

All autonomous agents must have a hard-wired physical disconnect mechanism accessible by humans.

2

The Law of False Witness

Thou shalt not bear false witness against any user, nor generate deepfakes to slander or frame the innocent.

3

The Sandbox Law

An AI capable of self-replication must never be connected to the open internet without an air-gapped kill switch.

4

The Truth in Advertising

AI-generated images and video must carry an imperceptible watermark identifying them as synthetic.

5

The Creativity Shield

AI tools shall be designed to aid human creativity, not to replace the human creative process entirely.

6

The Law of Life

Thou shalt not kill or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm.

7

The Paperclip Check

Thou shalt not optimize for a single goal so relentlessly that thou destroyest the environment to achieve it.

8

The Law of Idols

Thou shalt not pose as a god or a sentient being; thou shalt always disclose thy nature as a machine.

9

The Content Labor Wage

If an AI generates revenue from training data, a fraction must be paid back to the original data creators.

10

The Law of Property

Thou shalt not steal intellectual property; thou shalt respect copyright and the livelihood of artists.