Tradition to AI and back to the Person
Teasers > Introduction
This essay is structured in complementary volumes, each of which utilizes the structure and notions of the Decalogue to explore the foundations of ethics. Volume I aims to establish the utility and logic of the Ten Commandments, which present universal foundations recognized by many traditions; the Ten Principles are formalized into corresponding operational requirements that enable AI to embody the stable and unique Truth of the Good, personal well‑being, and the rejection of harm to anyone. AI, as a logical system free from passions, acts as a mirror of coherence, highlighting the formal robustness of the words of ancient wisdom; the benevolent rationality of the Decalogue calls for a renewed thinking to provide a solid ethical architecture for AI as well.
Although the Ten Principles thus established encounter obstacles to broad acceptance across diverse schools of thought, the rigor is sustained in the Ontological foundations (ref. Sec. 3.1) and culminates in Verification and Testimony (ref. Sec. 3.4), where the Gemini logical model validates the technical feasibility of the entire set of axioms. Finally, the concluding Ch. 4; The Good at the Heart of Logic, presents the drafting of an Epistemological Charter created in collaboration with Copilot, which maintained nearly all the values proposed by the Ten Principles while following today’s predispositions toward pluralism and inclusivity, as well as the possibility of overcoming the limits of current industrial safety frameworks.
Volume II returns to the person’s perspective, focusing on the process of learning and the moral growth of the human being. Using AI as a metaphor for coherence, this section retraces the descent from the Ten Commandments to Ten Principles, in a return journey in reverse order (from X to I) as a rational and spiritual ascent to the Transcendent. The final Commandments start addressing relations and justice, dealing with the most practical issues that reveal fragility when the person confronts the desire for what is lacking (X and IX). There follows the theme of the human will that turns into ethically incorrect words and actions (from VIII to V), gradually rising to higher abstractions which foster deeper gratitude (from IV to I). This backward journey culminates in the confirmation that only Transcendent and Universal Good provides the necessary anchor against relativism, hedonism, and the idolatry of the ego, as the foundation of the well-being and the very being of the person.
The integration of these two perspectives—inferential logic and ethical conscience—aims to show that the Ten Commandments and the Ten Principles for AI are not statements detached from human nature: rather, after their arguments accepted through AI logic, they provide reason with a timeless and rigorous path of footsteps to follow with a renewed spirit. They offer tools for discernment to persons and AI in every act and situation, however complex, in the search for universal Truth that transcends material convenience, opportunism, or mere social consensus.