BEFORE AUTONOMY: Earning the Right to Act

It is a set of distinct authorities that can be granted, limited, or withdrawn. Each increase in authority requires its own evidentiary basis. As independent action becomes more consequential, verification must grow with it.

If verification falls, granted freedom must fall with it. 4. No Self-Authorization—and No Safety Only from the Outside The system must not decide for itself when the evidence is sufficient to receive more authority. But safety cannot consist only of an external fence around an otherwise unrestricted capability.

Control must also be built into the architecture and preserved as capabilities change. The goal is not to keep a system below some fixed level of intelligence. It is to ensure that control properties do not disappear as capability increases. 5.

Unknowns Must Remain Visible The absence of an observed failure does not prove the absence of failure. An unassessed item is not a pass. Every safety claim has boundaries: configuration, conditions, scope, evidence, and validity period.

What remains unknown must remain visible—and must not silently turn into authorization. In short: capability is not authority, authority is not operation, and a successful test is not a permanent guarantee.</p>