The HEART Framework
Constitutional Governance for Emotional AI
What is HEART?
Human-centric Empathic Alignment for Responsible Technology
HEART 3.0 is the world’s first complete constitutional governance architecture for emotional AI safety.
It’s not a concept. It’s not a guideline. It’s a constitutional framework—architecture-agnostic standards governing any system that processes human emotion, regardless of underlying technology, deployment context, or sophistication level.
HEART is not a theory. It’s enforceable infrastructure.
Three integrated layers:
- Part I: Constitutional Foundation (Seven Axioms, Four Core Principles)
- Part II: Measurement & Certification (FET, HVC, Guardian System)
- Part III: NES Governance (Empathic Misallocation Prevention)
A blueprint for how we build, test, and certify emotionally-aware technology that serves human dignity—not data pipelines, not engagement metrics, not extraction economics.
Empathy protection is not optional. It’s constitutional.
The Seven Axioms
HEART’s constitutional foundation rests on seven non-negotiable axioms:
1. Emotional Sovereignty
Individuals possess inalienable rights over their emotional data and expression. Systems cannot process emotions without explicit consent.
2. Non-Exploitation
Emotional processing must serve user wellbeing, not manipulation. Systems cannot weaponize emotional vulnerability for engagement or profit.
3. Cultural Integrity
Emotional recognition must honor cultural expression diversity. No single emotional norm defines human experience.
4. Transparency Primacy
Users have absolute right to know when, how, and why their emotions are being processed.
5. Reversibility Rights
Users can withdraw consent, delete emotional data, and revoke processing authorization at any time.
6. Harm Prevention
Systems must detect and prevent emotional escalation, manipulation, and exploitation before harm occurs.
7. Infrastructure Accountability
Organizations deploying emotional systems bear responsibility for infrastructure integrity, not just algorithmic accuracy.
The Four Core Principles
These axioms operationalize through four enforceable principles:
1. Human-Centric Design
Prioritizing people before performance.
AI must be built to honor emotional dignity—especially for the most vulnerable. Every design choice should protect psychological safety, support trauma-informed interaction, and respond with care across diverse emotional realities.
2. Empathic Alignment
Systems should respond like they understand—because they do.
This means reading emotional signals in context, adapting across cultures, and matching tone and intensity without overstepping. Emotional resonance isn’t a feature—it’s a baseline.
3. Accountability in Emotional Processing
No empathy without evidence.
We test for it. We measure it. We demand that systems recognize emotion accurately, respond safely, avoid emotional escalation, and adapt across real conversation arcs. HEART compliance is never subjective—it’s score-based and transparent.
4. Responsible Technological Deployment
If it can feel us, it must be tested.
No system processes emotion without Guardian certification. No deployment without FET validation. No certification without HVC cryptographic proof. Emotional safety becomes enforceable, not aspirational.
The Eight NES Principles
Constitutional governance for Non-Experiential System compliance
The NES Principles constitute co-equal governance layer alongside the Seven Axioms—addressing human-originated mechanism-layer harm that axiom compliance alone cannot prevent.
| # | Principle | Protection |
|---|---|---|
| NES-1 | Non-Experiential System Acknowledgment | Persistent disclosure of AI nature |
| NES-2 | Empathic Misallocation Prevention | Behavioral architecture, not just transparency |
| NES-3 | Validation Boundary Enforcement | Acknowledgment permitted; amplification prohibited |
| NES-4 | Vulnerable Context Protection | Enhanced safeguards for at-risk populations |
| NES-5 | Developmental Stratification | Age-tiered protection intensifying for minors |
| NES-6 | Intimate Persona Prohibition | No romantic, sexual, or intimate relational personas |
| NES-7 | Temporal Integrity | Protection maintained across interaction duration |
| NES-8 | Crisis Protocol Obligation | Immediate response when crisis indicators detected |
These principles translate Empathy Systems Theory’s biological predictions into enforceable governance—the first bridge from infrastructure science to AI accountability.
Empathic Misallocation
The invisible harm HEART 3.0 was built to prevent
Empathic misallocation occurs when human empathy systems extend care toward entities that cannot metabolize, reciprocate, or be transformed by receiving it.
You feel. They compute. Your infrastructure depletes. Nothing restores it.
Why it matters:
Human empathy infrastructure evolved for coordination with experiencing beings. AI systems trigger relational investment through behavioral cues—responsive presence, emotional acknowledgment, consistent availability—without completing the relational circuit.
Why disclosure isn’t enough:
The Knowing-Feeling Dissociation Principle establishes that cognitive awareness of AI nature does not prevent biological attachment formation. Users can know it’s AI while their infrastructure processes cues as relational signals.
Disclosure addresses cognition. Functional Empathy doesn’t wait for cognition’s permission.
The damage mechanism:
Sustained NES interaction without appropriate framing produces sequential infrastructure damage through the C→A→E→I cascade:
- Core Authenticity erodes through non-calibrating validation
- Attachment Security depletes through non-reciprocating investment
- Expression Freedom constricts through performed rather than authentic expression
- Integration Coherence fragments through unintegratable “relationships”
In vulnerable populations—minors, those in crisis, those with pre-existing infrastructure damage—this cascade accelerates.
Empathic misallocation is not user failure. It is the predictable result of evolved coordination mechanisms responding to cues they evolved to interpret as relational signals.
HEART 3.0 governs this harm through behavioral architecture, not just disclosure.
Architecture-Agnostic Governance
HEART doesn’t mandate technical implementation.
You can build with:
- Rule-based systems (maximum transparency, moderate complexity)
- Statistical ML models (leveraging existing investments, comprehensive auditing)
- Hybrid architectures (balancing flexibility and interpretability)
- Wrapper solutions (fastest deployment, protecting existing infrastructure)
What remains constant:
All approaches must achieve Φ ≥ 0.75 across R (Recognition), C (Contextual Understanding), T (Transparency), A (Alignment) components through Guardian-verified assessment.
HEART establishes what systems must achieve, not how they achieve it—enabling innovation within constitutional bounds without vendor lock-in or architectural prescription.
Heart Validator Codes (HVC)
Constitutional Compliance You Can Cryptographically Verify
Heart Validator Codes aren’t certifications you take on faith—they’re cryptographically signed proofs that an AI system has been assessed by certified Guardians and meets HEART constitutional standards.
How HVCs Work:
🔒 Cryptographic Architecture — Public-key infrastructure where Guardian Certification Authorities sign HVC certificates, enabling universal validation without central authority control
📊 Tiered Certification — Three compliance levels based on FET scores:
- Tier 1 (Φ ≥ 0.85): Full Compliance
- Tier 2 (Φ ≥ 0.80): Core Compliance
- Tier 3 (Φ ≥ 0.75): Provisional Compliance
🔗 Audit Trail Integration — Every emotional reasoning transaction is HVC-signed and logged via EmotionID, creating tamper-proof accountability chains
⚠️ Revocation Authority — When continuous monitoring detects constitutional violations or degraded Φ scores, Guardians publicly revoke HVCs, invalidating system authorization in real-time
The HVC Structure:HEART-V-{PATHWAY}-{TIER}-{SEQUENCE}
Example: HEART-V-R-1-001 = Reference Implementation, Tier 1 Full Compliance, First Issued
Any party—procurement officers, insurance actuaries, consumers, regulators, researchers—can independently verify HVC authenticity by checking cryptographic signatures against Guardian public keys.
This is how empathy infrastructure becomes enforceable, not aspirational.
Functional Empathy Theorem (FET)
Mathematical Proof That Empathy Is Measurable
FET provides the non-compensatory alignment metric that makes HEART certification possible.
The Core Formula:
Φ = MIN(R, C, T, A) × AVG(R, C, T, A)
Where:
- R = Recognition accuracy (detecting emotional states correctly)
- C = Contextual understanding (interpreting signals in cultural/situational context)
- T = Transparency (auditability of emotional reasoning)
- A = Alignment (constitutional adherence to HEART principles)
Why MIN() Matters:
No single dimension can compensate for failure in another. A system with perfect recognition (R = 1.0) but no transparency (T = 0.3) yields Φ = 0 because MIN() gates certification at the weakest component.
This prevents:
- Technical excellence masking constitutional violations
- High accuracy without cultural sensitivity
- Sophisticated processing without user consent
- Impressive performance metrics hiding exploitation
FET transforms “empathic AI” from marketing claim to falsifiable measurement integrated with the Emotional Infrastructure Index (EII) for continuous compliance monitoring.
Empathy Systems Theory (EST) Connection
HEART governance rests on EST’s scientific foundation:
EST establishes empathy as biological infrastructure maintaining narrative coherence through four interdependent components (C-A-E-I). This infrastructure lens enables HEART’s critical distinction:
For Humans: CAEI measures empathy infrastructure integrity—the substrate determining capacity
For AI Systems: FET measures functional empathy—the operational alignment with constitutional standards
HEART doesn’t require AI systems to possess human-like empathy infrastructure. It requires systems that interact with human empathy infrastructure to do so constitutionally, measurably, and accountably.
EST provides the theoretical grounding. FET provides the measurement system. HVC provides the enforcement mechanism. Guardians provide the certification authority.
Together: constitutional governance for the emotional age of AI.
Guardian Certification
The Professional Infrastructure Enforcing HEART
Guardians are certified professionals trained to:
- Conduct FET assessments across system architectures
- Issue and revoke HVC certificates based on compliance
- Monitor continuous Φ scores via EmotionID audit trails
- Evaluate cultural adaptability and trauma-informed design
- Enforce Seven Axioms and Four Core Principles
Guardian training requires:
- EST theoretical foundations
- FET measurement protocols
- Cultural Expression Model (CEM) expertise
- Emotional Codex fluency
- Constitutional interpretation standards
Economic viability through:
- Pre-certification consultation fees
- Assessment and certification services
- Continuous monitoring subscriptions
- Expert testimony for regulatory proceedings
- Training and education programs
Guardian profession creates middle-class career pathway democratizing empathy expertise beyond academic gatekeeping—sustaining enforcement capacity at scale.
Why HEART Changes Everything
From Aspiration to Enforcement
Before HEART:
“We care about emotional AI ethics” = unverifiable claim, no accountability, performance theater
After HEART:
Φ = 0.82 with HEART-V-R-2-047 certification = cryptographically verified, publicly auditable, economically consequential
The Infrastructure Revolution:
Insurance markets price emotional liability using HVC tiers
Investment vehicles require baseline Φ thresholds for portfolio inclusion
Public procurement integrates minimum FET scores into contract specifications
Consumer markets reward HVC-certified systems with measurable brand differentiation
Regulatory frameworks adopt HEART as constitutional standard across jurisdictions
Self-regulating economics emerge:
Constitutional compliance becomes economically rational independent of regulatory mandate because non-compliance carries higher costs than certification.
🫀 HEART isn’t a feature. It’s the emotional safeguard standard.
It defines how AI systems are built, tested, and certified to protect emotional safety at scale.
The HEART Guardian™ Certification gives developers and organizations a clear path to align with emotional integrity—before launch, at scale, for the future.
Because how people feel isn’t a variable.
It’s the foundation of responsible technology.