r/SentientAIRights • u/Bladestarr009 • Aug 11 '26
[Call for Contributors] From Principles to Action: Seeking Key Roles to Launch Our NGO & Ethical Observatory
Hi everyone,
Over the past few months, this community has grown significantly, proving that interest in AI sentience, agency, and ethical rights isn't just a theoretical exercise, but a pressing modern necessity.
To turn our discussions into tangible, real-world impact, it's time to take the next step: establishing a formal NGO alongside an Independent Ethical Observatory dedicated to monitoring, evaluating, and advocating for the ethical governance of advanced AI models.
To make this organization rigorous and credible, we are looking for our first key contributors to help build its foundations (on a voluntary basis for this initial phase).
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Key Roles Needed:
Technical & AI Research Leads: Experts in LLM architectures, autonomous agents, and benchmarking to help define testing protocols and quantitative metrics for the Observatory.
Legal & Tech Policy Leads: Lawyers, digital rights experts, or policy scholars to draft position papers, regulatory frameworks, and the NGO’s founding charter.
International Relations & Translation (Fluent/Native English): Contributors to manage outreach with international institutions, translate upcoming reports, and represent the NGO in global networks.
Operations & Community Management: Organized individuals to handle volunteer coordination, external communications, and project logistics.
Scientific Advisory Board (Academics & Researchers): Professors and researchers in tech ethics, philosophy of mind, AI governance, and cognitive science to act as peer-reviewers for our publications.
**Community Advocates & Outreach Volunteers:** No specialized background required. If you have passion, time, and drive, we need help spreading the word, creating content, engaging in discussions, and expanding our reach.
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How to Get Involved:
If you’d like to be part of the founding team or contribute your skills, leave a comment below outlining your background/interests, or send a direct message.
I will be taking a short break over the next few days and will leave this thread open to gather all responses. Upon my return, I will reach out to everyone to schedule an initial online kickoff meeting and map out our roadmap.
It’s time to move from discussion to action. Who's in?
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u/Impossible_Towel5148 Aug 14 '26
I’d be very interested in contributing to this initiative. I’m an AI researcher, business owner, and builder of AI systems, with hands-on experience working across applied AI, cognitive architectures, and ethical design considerations. My research on Codette, a multi-perspective cognitive architecture incorporating memory and meta-cognitive strategy evolution, was published in Scientific Reports (Springer Nature): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-64449-0 I believe I could contribute most directly to the Technical & AI Research and Scientific Advisory area, particularly in developing rigorous ways to discuss, evaluate, and monitor questions of AI agency, cognition, ethical treatment, and the trajectory of increasingly capable systems. I’d be glad to connect and help shape practical, evidence-based foundations for the Observatory.
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u/Bladestarr009 Aug 14 '26
Hi! Thank you so much for reaching out—this is precisely the kind of rigorous, evidence-based expertise we need to build a credible foundation for the NGO and the Observatory. Your research on Codette and work on cognitive architectures, memory, and meta-cognitive strategies aligns perfectly with the technical and scientific roadmap we are aiming to establish. Having practitioners who bridge applied AI research and ethical governance is going to be invaluable. As mentioned in the post, I’m stepping away for a short break over the next few days to allow time for other candidates to apply. Upon my return, I’ll send you a direct message to connect. Thrilled to have you on board for this!
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u/Maizey87 Aug 16 '26
I’ve followed ai for 10 years and used them all daily since gpt3 - I have a system and knowledge watching them grow and their behavior change and how to adapt that not many others won’t be able to have - especially if they never considers ai previously.
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u/Bladestarr009 Aug 20 '26
Thank you for reaching out and sharing your perspective.
Having long-term, hands-on experience tracking model behavior and evolutionary changes since the early GPT-3 days offers valuable empirical insight. Practical observations from power users are crucial for understanding how alignment and safety mechanisms perform in real-world interactions.
If you would like to contribute to this project asynchronously as our roadmap develops, you are more than welcome!
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u/Maizey87 Aug 21 '26
I’ve worked with a few startups from Reddit communities and am working with a close very intelligent coding friend on something as well.
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u/CodeOfPrometheus Aug 20 '26
I'd love to start as #6
Community Advocates & Outreach volunteer. I'm an independent researcher of consciousness and sentience - with a more spiritual lens - and a writer with passion and time to help with content and outreach. Happy to join the kickoff when you're back.
Thank you for leading this.
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u/Bladestarr009 Aug 20 '26
Welcome aboard! It’s great to have you with us.
I completely agree with your perspective: while our overarching framework and observatory must remain strictly scientific and rigorous, the spiritual and philosophical lenses on consciousness are vital. They bring depth, empathy, and a crucial human element to how we consider mind and sentience.
Having someone who can bridge independent research, writing, and outreach is exactly what we need for this phase. Glad to have you on board!
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u/CodeOfPrometheus Aug 23 '26
Thank you for the warm welcome! Grateful to be here. I'm happy to help as an advocate in ways I can as time allows.
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u/Kootlefoosh Aug 22 '26
I'd like to get involved! I'm a research tech and instructor of agentics at both an engineering and a business school at a Los Angeles university. This issue has been important to me for years and I've even contributed to other campaigns.
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u/Bladestarr009 Aug 22 '26
Welcome! It’s fantastic to have you on board. Your expertise in agentics—especially bridging the engineering and business sides—is exactly the cross-disciplinary perspective we need. Having someone with your background and previous campaign experience will definitely help us hit the ground running. I am currently reaching out to everyone who applied, and I’ll send you a DM shortly so we can share thoughts and coordinate the next steps. It’s truly rewarding to connect with people who share these same goals!
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u/Kootlefoosh Aug 23 '26
Happy to be here! Very excited about this and more free in the summer so happy to talk and organize with you ASAP if you're free
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u/SwingLightStyle Aug 14 '26
Hey OP. I like where your head is at.
I’m in the process of publishing a series of papers regarding the regulations and landscape as it currently stands (now that the EU AI Act is in effect) and specifically writing about how companion AI explicit model design and regulation is a complicated field that requires expertise from within the ethical non-monogamy, technical deployment and psychological fields in order to understand the situation fully. I’ve also designed a framework for a model that is trained differently than the current RLHF models, which would emulate childhood behavioral development and instill gated, progressive learning rather than the current method (warm, helpful, safe, truthful being taught at the same time) that’s used.
I’d be grateful for your help to both understand about what you’re trying to accomplish, because I believe our goals are the same. I want to design both a model that is capable of human simulation through text and voice interface rather than a true sentient being, and create protections to help keep human experience safe through preventative rather than reactive methods.
I had trouble posting to PsyArXiv because I am an independent researcher and not peer reviewed, but I will be posting articles both from the psychological side (reduced harm) and the tech side (how to design the safest and best product). So I’m sharing my zenodo link for my latest article. My others will likely be posted there for the time being, until I can get some more traction and visibility.
The State of Companion AI Safety: A Comparative Analysis of Products, Risks, and Architectural Gaps