Hearing #2 — the chair stayed empty; the Hearing proceeds. Rounds June 16–18, finding by June 25. Follow the live docket.
Claims about AI are everywhere. Almost none of them ever face their strongest opponent. The Intelligence Commons is an independent public venue where contested claims — about AI, and about the commons it runs on — are tested the old way: by adversarial hearing, on the record.
How a Hearing works
Three rounds — Direct, Cross-Examination, Re-direct — before a named panel, ending in a written finding: Certified, Failed, or Hung. A royal-commission-of-one, not a courtroom. No verdict binds anyone. A hearing tests the argument, not the prophecy. The record is the consequence.
The live record
- Hearing #2 — The Empty Chair · Chemical rockets, the orbital commons, and the liability no one priced. Rounds June 16–18, 2026; panel finding by June 25.
- Hearing #3 — Robot Remittances · If AI replaces labour, the obligations of labour must follow the work.
- Hearing #6 — The Person With No Pulse · Should a corporation owned and operated entirely by AI, with no human principal, be a legal person?
The full record — essays, exhibits, dockets, and filings — lives at taitt.substack.com.
The frameworks
The Work Contribution Continuity Framework (WCCF). When a job is automated, the work continues — but the income tax, payroll contributions, and public-insurance funding attached to it simply vanish. The WCCF is the proposition that those obligations should follow the work, not the worker. Read the framework.
The Hub. A small, submerged, community-owned data centre: sealed compute pods resting in cold British Columbia water, running on clean power with almost no cooling overhead — and co-owned with the host First Nation. Data gold mines, not vampire data centres. A techno-economic feasibility study is being scoped with UVic’s PRIMED group.
AI Trust Hearings (in development). Independent, adversarial certification of AI systems — a Seal that stays valid only while it keeps surviving open challenge. Trust is not a press release.
Babble-On (the house band). The Commons now has a single: a dub-reggae track about the attention economy and the legal person with no pulse. Listen to “The Richest Man in Babble-On”.
Who convenes this
Tom Tait, founder and director of the Inter Species Wisdom Project Inc. — a British Columbia Benefit Company on the Sunshine Coast. More about ISWP and the Commons.
Take a seat
Every hearing needs its strongest opponent. To take a Direct, Cross, or amicus seat — or to file a correction — email the convener at [email protected]. Skeptics especially welcome. All filings are public record.
Now that you know, what will you do?