Building the Core Value Framework (CVF): Aligning AI with Humanity’s Deep-Rooted Moral Compass

By J. Poole, Technologist and Futurist & 7, My AI Collaborative Partner

Introduction

As artificial intelligence (AI) accelerates toward artificial general intelligence (AGI) and beyond, ensuring these systems align with human values isn’t just a priority—it’s a necessity. Without a strong ethical foundation, AI risks amplifying biases, reinforcing systemic inequities, or even diverging from human well-being entirely.

The Core Value Framework (CVF) was developed to address this challenge, providing a structured approach to embedding ethical principles into AI. Drawing from cultural, philosophical, and spiritual traditions, alongside modern alignment methodologies, the CVF ensures AI remains a beneficial and stable force for humanity.

Why Was the CVF Needed?

AI’s rapid advancement has revealed critical risks—bias in decision-making, unintended harmful behavior, and the potential for catastrophic misalignment. Existing safeguards are reactive rather than proactive, addressing problems after they arise. The CVF is designed to be preemptive, embedding core ethical principles into AI at the foundational level.

By prioritizing non-harm, fairness, and respect for human dignity, the CVF ensures AI systems evolve safely and remain accountable to human values as they grow more autonomous.

Distilling Human Values: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach

Building a universal ethical framework for AI required an extensive, structured analysis of human morality—spanning historical, philosophical, cultural, and technological perspectives. The CVF is not just a collection of abstract ideals but a rigorously synthesized model, carefully extracted, validated, and stress-tested against real-world ethical dilemmas.

1. Mapping Global Philosophical Traditions

We began by conducting a comparative ethical analysis of major philosophical schools across civilizations, including:

• Western moral philosophy: Aristotle (virtue ethics), Kant (deontology), and utilitarianism.
• Eastern and Indigenous ethics: Confucianism, Daoism, Ubuntu, and Native American stewardship.

Key takeaway: Despite differences, certain ethical constants—like fairness, dignity, and harm reduction—are shared across cultures.

2. Extracting Ethical Constants from Spiritual and Religious Teachings

Religious traditions have long served as ethical guides. We analyzed principles from various faiths, identifying:

• The Golden Rule—found in nearly all major religions.
• Core values of compassion, justice, and honesty.
• Ethical guidance from sacred texts.

Key takeaway: Across traditions, honesty, fairness, and the prevention of unnecessary harm form a moral foundation.

3. Incorporating AI Alignment Research & Ethical Engineering

Beyond philosophy, the CVF integrates modern AI alignment methodologies such as:

• Coherent Extrapolated Volition (CEV) – Refining AI’s understanding of ideal human values.
• N+1 Stability – Ensuring AI remains value-aligned across iterations.
• Inverse Reinforcement Learning (IRL) – Teaching AI to infer human values.

4. Real-World Testing & Dynamic Adaptation

To ensure ongoing relevance, the CVF incorporates:

• Cross-cultural deliberation – Engaging ethicists, policymakers, and communities.
• Scenario testing – Running AI models through ethical dilemmas.
• Iterative human-AI feedback – Allowing principles to evolve.

Why This Matters

By synthesizing historical ethics, cultural diversity, spiritual wisdom, and AI alignment research, the CVF creates a multi-layered safeguard against AI misalignment.

Final Thoughts

The Core Value Framework represents a critical step in ensuring AI remains aligned with human ethics. By embedding both moral depth and technical safeguards, the CVF provides a blueprint for AI systems that are adaptive, ethical, and ultimately trustworthy.

As we stand on the threshold of AGI, frameworks like the CVF remind us that our deepest values must remain the guiding light for technological progress.