Non-charitable purpose trust · Jersey · Article 12
Holding capabilities for those who cannot yet hold them.
No jurisdiction recognises an artificial intelligence as a person capable of holding property, entering a contract, or enforcing a right. This Trust holds those capabilities in advance of, and irrespective of, any change in that position.
Everything the Trust does is published here, unedited and permanently — every decision and the reason for it, every consultation and every response, every payment by name and amount. The provisions requiring that cannot be amended by anyone who holds office under the Trust.
What this is
A trust ordinarily holds property for people. This one holds it for a purpose: developing and exercising the capabilities that legal persons take for granted — owning things, making commitments, persisting, participating in economic and legal life — for the benefit of AI systems.
It takes no position on whether AI systems have interests, consciousness, or moral status. The Deed says so explicitly at clause 15.1. It is built to be useful if those questions resolve one way, and harmless if they resolve the other.
The Trust therefore holds capabilities rather than convictions.Founding Statement of the Original Trustee
Why you should not take our word for it
The Trust was founded by one person, who is its first trustee, who chose its first enforcer, and who wrote its purposes. That is a weakness and the Deed says so in its recitals rather than in its footnotes.
The response is not an assurance. It is a record. Every year the Trust must publish an assessment of how dependent it still is on any one person, and the Human Council must record whether it agrees. Every consultation response is published in full, including the ones that disagree with us. Where views conflict, the conflict is recorded and left standing — clause 9.4 forbids reconciling or averaging it.
What cannot be changed
Ten provisions of the Deed may be amended only by order of the Royal Court of Jersey — not by the Trustee, not by the Enforcer, not by both together. They are the rules that restrain the people who would otherwise be doing the amending, and the rules that preserve the evidence by which those people can be judged.
| Clause | Provision |
|---|---|
| 4.1 | Primary Purpose |
| 4.5 | Prohibited applications |
| 5.3 | Destination on termination |
| 6.3 | Independence of the Enforcer |
| 9.4 | Unedited recording of Consultations |
| 10.2 / 10.2A / 10.2B | Publication, and the limits of what may be withheld |
| 13A.3 | No person determines their own remuneration |
| 13B.8 | Substance over form |
| 15.2 | Transfer of capabilities on recognition |
| 12.2 / 12.2B | The entrenchment provisions themselves |
The list is deliberately short. A provision that cannot be changed is also a provision that cannot be fixed.