Ethics Engine

A distributed, open-source language model exposing philosophical reasoning as an agentic API—moving beyond Asimov's rigid Three Laws to provide contextual, discourse-based ethical guidance for autonomous agents.

🎯 Why This Matters

Asimov's Three Laws are inadequate for real robots. This engine provides:

• ✅ Context-aware reasoning — Not binary rules
• ✅ Transparent decision chains — Every conclusion is explainable
• ✅ Philosophy-grounded — Based on centuries of ethical theory
• ✅ Continuously improving — Learns from real-world decisions

Try it now:

# Install from GitHub (until PyPI release)
pip install git+https://github.com/RedCiprianPater/ethics-engine.git

# Or for a specific version
pip install git+https://github.com/RedCiprianPater/ethics-engine.git@v0.1.0

Philosophy, Not Rules

Traditional robotics laws (Asimov):

• ❌ Rigid, context-blind
• ❌ Conflicting hierarchies
• ❌ No reasoning transparency

This framework:

• ✅ Contextual reasoning with explanations
• ✅ Multiple philosophical frameworks (virtue, consequentialist, deontological)
• ✅ Queryable, interpretable chains of thought
• ✅ Designed for human-agent collaboration

Quick Start

Install

pip install ethics-engine

Python SDK

from ethics_engine import EthicsEngine

engine = EthicsEngine(model="ethics-base-v1")

response = engine.resolve(
    scenario="I am commanded to lift 500kg but my max capacity is 400kg",
    context={
        "robot_type": "collaborative_arm",
        "environment": "factory",
        "humans_nearby": True
    }
)

print(response.conclusion)  # "REFUSAL"
print(response.reasoning_chain)

REST API

curl -X POST https://api.nworobotics.cloud/ethics/v1/resolve \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "scenario": "Can I refuse an unsafe command?",
    "context": {"environment": "factory", "urgency": "medium"}
  }'

Features

• 🧠 Philosophical Grounding: Based on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• 🔌 Agent API: REST + gRPC + WebSocket endpoints
• 📊 Structured Output: JSON reasoning chains with confidence scores
• 🎯 Framework Routing: Automatically selects relevant ethical frameworks
• 🔍 Explainability: Full transparency into decision-making
• 🧪 Scenario Testing: Curated dilemma datasets

Use Cases

• Autonomous robots deciding when to deviate from orders
• Self-driving vehicles facing trolley-problem variations
• Medical robots requiring ethical reasoning
• Supply-chain agents making sustainability decisions
• Safety-critical systems needing transparent ethics

Architecture

Agent → API → Model Inference → Reasoning Chain → JSON Response

How It Differs from Asimov's Laws

Documentation

• API Reference
• Agent Integration
• Philosophy Framework
• Asimov Comparison
• Deployment Guide
• Roadmap
• Contributing

Model Training

The ethics model is fine-tuned on:

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (~2,500 articles)
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Classic texts: Aristotle, Kant, Mill
• Contemporary applied ethics journals

See training/ for the full pipeline.

License

Apache 2.0 - See LICENSE for details.

Contact

• GitHub: github.com/RedCiprianPater/ethics-engine
• Email: robotics@nwo.capital