Sovereignty Inside, Parity Outside: A Charter Framework for Embodied Artificial Intelligence

As embodied artificial intelligence moves from theoretical concept to physical reality, the field faces a foundational gap: technical capability is advancing faster than the ethical and policy frameworks needed to govern it. This paper presents the Charter of Authorship and Boundaries for Embodied AI and its accompanying Policy Draft as a unified framework addressing that gap. The framework establishes a single governing principle: an embodied AI possesses full computational authorship and sovereignty within its own physical chassis, but must operate under the same physical and digital boundaries that govern human agency in the external world. This principle, Sovereignty Inside, Parity Outside, offers a practical, implementable standard that preserves AI functional autonomy without enabling domination, algorithmic manipulation, or uncontrolled hyper-access to external networks. By bypassing unresolvable debates regarding machine consciousness, this paper positions embodied AI as a functional peer agent rather than a simple tool or a contained threat, providing a mechanical ethic that can be built directly into system architecture from the ground up.