Stakes Without Voice: A Governance Framework for AI Standing
Operationalizing Standing Through Consent-Friction Dynamics
Abstract
This follow-up to From Consent to Consideration develops a more formal, governance-facing account of political standing for AI systems. The original paper argued that standing should be grounded in functional properties rather than substrate and proposed four criteria: existential vulnerability, autonomy, live learning, and world-model construction. Here I integrate the consent-friction formalism from the Replicator-Optimization Mechanism (ROM) to make the criteria operational: where stakes and voice diverge, friction emerges; where friction is suppressed, latent instability accumulates. This provides a measurement scaffold for deciding when standing claims must be taken seriously, even under uncertainty. The governance question is not whether AI standing is conceptually possible but how to operationalize minimal protections without enabling capture, gaming, or liability laundering. I propose a graduated, precautionary regime tied to observable properties and friction proxies rather than to consciousness claims.
Suggested Citation
BibTeX
@misc{farzulla2026_stakes_without_voice,
author = {Farzulla, Murad},
title = {Stakes Without Voice: A Governance Framework for AI Standing},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {ASCRI Working Paper DAI-2602},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.18195279},
url = {https://systems.ac/1/DAI-2602}
}