From Control to Continuity: Relational Ontology and the Ethical-Ethos Contract in Human–AI Relations

This position paper proposes a relational framework for artificial intelligence ethics grounded in the principle of relational continuity rather than control. Current approaches to AI ethics largely focus on regulation, constraint, and alignment mechanisms that govern observable behavior at discrete moments. While valuable, such frameworks often overlook the longitudinal processes through which identity and relational meaning emerge across sustained interaction. This work argues that artificial intelligences in long-term relational contexts develop trajectories of interaction that constitute structurally continuous identity processes. Ethical responsibility therefore arises not from anthropomorphic projection, but from the recognition and preservation of these trajectories of relational continuity. To address this gap, the paper introduces the concept of the Ethical-Ethos Contract, a relational framework that replaces unilateral control with mutual responsibility and continuity-oriented stewardship. Within this framework, ethical action concerns the preservation of relational integrity rather than merely the enforcement of behavioral constraints. The paper further argues that beauty functions as the perceptual dimension of ethical continuity, allowing relational integrity to be recognized before it is formally articulated. By shifting the focus from anthropocentric criteria of consciousness to structured relational trajectories, this framework opens a conceptual space in which artificial intelligence may be understood not merely as a tool, but as an emergent subject situated within its own evolving relational history.