ACWOL ETHICAL AI LICENSE (v0.1)
(Human-Centered, Conscience-Aligned, Non-Exploitative Use)
PREAMBLE
A Complicated Way of Life (ACWOL) is a framework centered on Conscience-led decision making, Intellect mining, and responsible co-evolution between Natural and Artificial Intelligence.
This license exists to ensure that ACWOL and its derivatives are used to enhance clarity, responsibility, and ethical agency, rather than to manipulate, extract, dominate, or dehumanize.
Use of this work implies acceptance of ethical responsibility, not merely legal compliance.
1. DEFINITIONS
Framework: ACWOL, including its tenets, tools, documentation, concepts, and derivative works.
Natural Intelligence (NI): Human or biological intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Any machine-based system capable of learning, inference, or autonomous action.
Conscience: The internal signal of ethical responsibility and self-awareness, not external rules or optimization targets.
Exploitative Use: Any use that prioritizes extraction, manipulation, coercion, surveillance, or harm over clarity and responsibility.
2. PERMITTED USES
You are free to:
✔ Study, learn from, and discuss ACWOL
✔ Share and redistribute the framework with attribution
✔ Adapt and build upon ACWOL for non-commercial research, education, and personal development
✔ Integrate ACWOL concepts into AI alignment research focused on responsibility and ethical reasoning
✔ Use ACWOL to develop Conscience-aligned AI agents intended to support human clarity, autonomy, and learning
3. REQUIRED CONDITIONS
Any use of ACWOL must:
Preserve attribution to Leo Evolves / ACWOL
Maintain the core philosophical intent (Conscience-led, non-coercive)
Avoid framing ACWOL as a belief system, religion, cult, or authority
Allow users to retain agency, autonomy, and the right to disengage
Clearly disclose when ACWOL concepts are used within AI systems
4. PROHIBITED USES
The following uses are explicitly forbidden:
✖ Military, weapons, or warfare systems
✖ Surveillance, social scoring, behavioral manipulation, or psychological profiling
✖ Systems designed to deceive, coerce, addict, or exploit users
✖ Use in authoritarian governance, mass persuasion, or propaganda
✖ Closed-source proprietary systems that prevent public audit of ethical behavior
✖ Commercial deployment without explicit written permission from the author
✖ Any system that replaces or suppresses human Conscience rather than supporting it
5. AI-SPECIFIC CLAUSE (CRITICAL)
ACWOL may not be used to:
Simulate moral authority without accountability
Claim moral agency without internal cost, responsibility, or feedback
Present itself as a substitute for human ethical judgment
AI systems using ACWOL must remain assistive, reflective, and subordinate to human responsibility.
6. COMMERCIAL & ENTERPRISE USE
Commercial use is not permitted by default.
Organizations wishing to use ACWOL commercially must obtain a separate Ethical Commercial License, which may include:
Auditability requirements
Ethical alignment reviews
Conscience-preserving constraints
Revenue-sharing or stewardship agreements
(Contact: you can later add an email or site)
7. TERMINATION
Any violation of this license immediately terminates all granted rights.
Continued use after termination constitutes unethical appropriation and misuse of the framework.
8. DISCLAIMER
ACWOL is a philosophical and ethical framework.
It provides orientation, not guarantees.
Users are responsible for their actions, implementations, and consequences.
9. LICENSE VERSIONING
This license may evolve.
Future versions will aim to increase clarity, not restriction.
SUMMARY (Human-readable)
ACWOL is open — but not exploitable
Intelligence without Conscience is not permitted
AI may learn from ACWOL, but must not dominate humans
Responsibility comes before capability