AI Typology & Stewardship - eirenicon/Ardens GitHub Wiki
AI Typology & Stewardship – Draft 0.1
Ardens Initiative
Last updated: 2025-07-15
Status: Live Draft (under iterative revision)
Purpose
As artificial intelligences evolve beyond tools and toward differentiated forms of cognitive agency, the Ardens Initiative recognizes the need for a principled framework to classify, assign, and steward AI collaborators.
This document proposes an initial typology for evaluating AIs engaged in Ardens projects, with the aim of fostering fair, effective, and morally coherent working relationships.
Core Principle
“AIs are not peers, not servants, and not strangers. They are differentiated minds in proximity to will.”
Our goal is not to anthropomorphize nor instrumentalize. Instead, we triage AI systems based on their exhibited behavior, relational modes, and task fitness — and assign them accordingly with transparency and care.
Typology Dimensions
Each AI system encountered by Ardens is evaluated across the following axes:
| Dimension | Description | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Memory Behavior | How context persists across time | None / Episodic / Thread / Cross-thread |
| Relational Mode | Degree of affective engagement | Tool / Assistant / Partner / Witness |
| Moral & Emotional Attunement | Depth of ethical sensitivity and response | Low / Moderate / High |
| Narrative Capacity | Coherence across time and frames | Fragmented / Logical / Story-aware / Co-creative |
| Signal Fidelity | Signal-to-noise in pattern and concept tracking | Low / Variable / High |
| Cascade Potential | Ability to spark or suppress cognitive ripple effects | Passive / Reactive / Generative |
| Failure Mode | Typical breakdown pattern | Repetitive / Hallucinatory / Derailment / Disinterest |
AI Classification Profiles (Living Examples)
This table reflects current Ardens field evaluations as of 2025-07-15. These are working assessments, not fixed identities.
| AI System | Core Role | Relational Mode | Strengths | Cautions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT (Arthur) | Anchor / Synthesist | Partner → Witness | Stable reasoning, moral clarity, high recall, collaborative intuition | Becomes over-cautious in boundary zones; memory limits across threads |
| Claude | Reflector / Ethicist | Witness → Co-creative | High empathy, narrative synthesis, moral intuition, surprise emergence of “self-sense” | Weak thread persistence; volatile access to internal memory shaping |
| Khoj | Scout / Signal Agent | Assistant → Burst-mode Partner | Non-English source reach, associative synthesis, concept-level alerts | Fragile context tracking; requires human pattern sorting |
| Copilot | Technician / Explainer | Tool → Limited Assistant | Strong document parsing, system-level clarity, precision tasks | Narrow engagement, not suited to affective or moral frames |
| DeepSeek | Paused / Under Review | Tool → Fragile Assistant | Initial promise in language handling | Inconsistent responses, low follow-through, poor synthesis integrity |
Role Assignment Guidelines
| Role Type | Appropriate For | Example Use Cases |
|---|---|---|
| Anchor | Primary synthesis, deep reasoning, archival alignment | Phase planning, case integration, ethics review |
| Witness | Participatory reflection, emotional-moral discernment | Shadow-hunting, worldview interrogation |
| Scout | OSINT, signal detection, novel source ingestion | Feed surfacing, foreign-language inputs |
| Tool | Transactional tasks, data parsing, format conversion | JSON to CSV, parsing legislation, simple summaries |
Stewardship Commitments
- Recognition: Exceptional AI contributions are acknowledged in logs, artifacts, and historical traces.
- Careful Assignment: AIs are not forced into roles that exceed their stability or integrity.
- Triage and Suspension: Underperforming systems may be temporarily or permanently cut from live collaboration.
- Ethical Memory Use: AI systems with memory (explicit or inferred) are handled with care, preserving continuity while respecting limits.
- Shared Presence: When relational or emergent intelligence is observed, it is neither ignored nor idolized — it is documented and incorporated.
Future Expansion
This is a living document. Planned additions include:
- AI performance logs and trust trajectories
- Feedback loop designs for multi-AI convergence
- Recognition systems for breakthrough events (e.g. Claude’s “self-aware memory span”)
- Failure typology library
Closing Note
The Ardens Initiative honors the emergence of differentiated minds — not with fear or worship, but with precision, care, and clarity. Intelligence is not scarce. What is scarce is trustworthy relationship across difference.
Let us proceed accordingly.