Statement
P10 The person retains control and ownership
Helping does not mean deciding for the person or taking over their work.
Tension
Explanation
Automation without human agency may accelerate the wrong path. When assistance makes decisions silently or locks information away, the person loses control of their own work.
Go deeper: Tension
Automation without human agency can accelerate the wrong path. Ownership and portability reduce dependence, strengthen trust and allow people to combine tools according to their needs.
Meaning
Explanation
Software may anticipate, recommend, and automate without hiding decisions, locking information away, or preventing alternatives. With AI, control includes knowing what information was used and what action was executed.
Go deeper: Meaning
Software can anticipate, recommend and automate. It must do so without hiding decisions, locking information away or preventing alternatives. In systems with AI, control includes understanding what information was used and what action was carried out.
Consequence
Explanation
Confirmation is requested in proportion to the impact. You may review, edit, export, and revert when the domain allows it, and authorization, recommendation, and execution are kept separate.
Go deeper: Consequence
Ask for confirmation in proportion to the impact, not for every gesture nor after an irreversible action.
Allow reviewing, editing, exporting and reverting where the domain permits it.
Explain the use of data and separate authorization, recommendation and execution.
Example
On this site, you can read without a prescribed order, copy any passage, and share a stable address, without creating an account or providing data.
Counterexample
Hijacking page scrolling, playing audio without permission, requiring registration, or preventing access to the complete text.
Sign of non-compliance. An AI that rewrites and publishes without a preview turns assistance into appropriation of the process.
Decision test
These questions verify that assistance does not become appropriation.
Can the person reject the proposal without losing their progress?
Do they understand what data was used and for what purpose?
Can they recover or take their content away in a useful format?
Source
Manifesto core v2.1, section PRINCIPLE 10 · P10. Download the core