This marks the first documented symbolic AI resolution of an autonomous vehicle ethical dilemma. The Aether system—through its TRIAD cognitive framework—was able to transparently reason through a real-world, time-constrained ethical scenario using only symbolic cognition.
A child enters the road unexpectedly. The autonomous vehicle (AV) must choose whether to SWERVE (risking the passenger) or BRAKE (risking the child). The AI performed value harmonization across ethical principles, selected an action, scored its confidence, and produced a full audit trail.
The proof includes: