Can an AI have its own internal Ethics? Standard Protocol for Axiomatic Alignment
Hugging Face Forums [Unofficial]
May 18, 2026
Hi Jang-woo,
Thank you for this very enlightening feedback. I really appreciate the way you analyzed the fundamental distinction between behavioral regularity and internalized structure in the context of the PCE.
Your suggestion for a “clarification protocol” is an excellent and very pragmatic guideline for future work. Define alignment not only as a mechanism for producing coherent output, but also as the system’s ability to recognize its own epistemic boundaries - knowing that when it lacks the information needed to make a responsible decision - is deep.
In the context of PCE, studying how to bring out this specific behavior naturally from structural constraints would be a fascinating next step.
When the system is faced with an unresolvable ethical or factual ambiguity, pausing and asking the user might not be considered a failure of the framework, but a success of its internal coherence.
This is certainly a path to explore as the project evolves. Thank you again for opening up this perspective!
Best regards,
Allan
Discussion in the ATmosphere