Declaration on the Human Right to a Share in the Material Benefits of Autonomous Production

Draft text for discussion. May 2026.

Preamble

Proceeding from the dignity of every human being as the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace;

recognizing that humanity’s scientific, technological, cultural, and institutional development is the result of the labor, knowledge, suffering, discoveries, and efforts of countless generations;

taking into account that autonomous intelligent systems and production systems are capable of creating material goods with decreasing dependence on direct human labor;

aware that, under conditions of autonomous production, the old connection between labor contribution, income, and access to the necessities of life may lose its universal character;

affirming that no human being may be deprived of the right to life, development, and participation in the benefits of civilization on the grounds of economic redundancy;

recognizing that the material benefits of autonomous production cannot be treated exclusively as the private gain of the owners of machines, models, data, infrastructure, or capital;

this Declaration is hereby proclaimed.

Article 1. Basic Principle

Every human being has an inalienable right to a fair share in the material goods created by autonomous intelligent systems and production systems, since such systems arise from humanity’s common scientific, cultural, labor, institutional, and historical inheritance.

Article 2. The Right to Share in the Material Benefits of Autonomous Production

The right proclaimed by this Declaration is not only a right of access to technology, information, or digital tools, but above all a right to participate in the distribution of material goods created by autonomous production.

Such goods include, in particular, food, housing, clothing, energy, medical supplies, transportation, communications, infrastructure services, and other material conditions of a dignified life.

Article 3. Basis of the Right

The human right to a share in the material benefits of autonomous production does not depend on a person’s current labor contribution, property status, profession, origin, citizenship, age, health, abilities, or market usefulness.

This right is grounded in every person’s belonging to humanity as an heir to common civilizational labor.

Article 4. Autonomous Production as a Source of Civilizational Rent

Material goods created by systems capable of producing, designing, managing, distributing, or servicing production without decisive dependence on direct human labor constitute civilizational rent.

A fair share of this rent belongs to every human being.

Article 5. Non-Exclusion from Distribution

No person may be deprived of access to basic material goods on the grounds that their labor is no longer required for the functioning of an autonomous economy.

A person’s economic redundancy may not serve as grounds for the loss of that person’s right to a dignified life.

Article 6. The Duty of Society and the State

States, international organizations, and other public institutions have a duty to create legal, economic, and organizational mechanisms that secure for every human being a fair share in the material benefits of autonomous production.

Such mechanisms may include public funds, civic dividends, guaranteed access to basic goods, public stakes in autonomous infrastructure, taxation of civilizational rent, and other forms of fair distribution.

Article 7. Limits on Private Appropriation

Property rights in autonomous production systems, computing infrastructure, models, data, energy, robotic factories, and other means of autonomous production may not be exercised in a way that deprives humanity of its fair share in the material goods they create.

Private, state, or corporate ownership of such systems does not erase their origin in the common civilizational inheritance.

Article 8. Basic Material Guarantee

Every human being has the right to a level of participation in the material benefits of autonomous production sufficient to secure nutrition, housing, medical care, basic energy, communications, safety, education, mobility, and other necessary conditions of dignified existence.

This guarantee is not an act of grace, charity, or a welfare benefit; it is a form of implementing the human right to a share in the common civilizational inheritance.

Article 9. Justice Beyond Basic Needs

The distribution of material goods beyond the basic guarantee must take into account actual abundance, scarcity of resources, ecological limits, the needs of future generations, and the equal dignity of all people.

Rare, unique, or limited goods may be distributed under special fair rules, including queues, rotation, public priorities, democratic decision-making, or other non-discriminatory procedures.

Article 10. Participation in Governance

Every human being has the right to participate, directly or through democratic institutions, in determining the rules for distributing the material benefits of autonomous production.

Governance of autonomous productive infrastructure cannot be exclusively a matter for owners of capital, technical operators, or closed algorithmic systems.

Article 11. Transparency and Accountability

Systems that determine the production and distribution of basic material goods must be accountable to society.

Decisions affecting people’s access to life-sustaining goods may not be made by opaque autonomous systems without affording persons a right to explanation, appeal, and protection.

Article 12. Future Generations

The present generation has no right to fully privatize, exhaust, destroy, or monopolize autonomous productive infrastructure and the natural conditions necessary for its existence.

Future generations have the right to inherit the material, scientific, ecological, and institutional conditions that allow them to benefit from autonomous production.

Article 13. The International Character of the Right

Because autonomous production is based on the inheritance of all humanity, the right to share in its material benefits cannot be limited exclusively to citizens of the States within whose territories the relevant companies, laboratories, data centers, or production facilities are located.

The international community has a duty to strive to ensure that the benefits of autonomous production do not entrench global inequality, but instead serve to advance the dignity and well-being of all people.

Article 14. No New Caste System

Autonomous production must not become the basis for dividing humanity into owners of the production machine and persons deprived of access to its benefits.

The creation of an economic order in which most people lose the possibility of labor participation and at the same time are deprived of a material share in autonomous wealth is contrary to human dignity.

Article 15. Relationship to Other Human Rights

The right to a share in the material benefits of autonomous production complements and develops the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to participate in cultural and scientific life, the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress, the right to development, and the principle of the equal dignity of all human beings.

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as diminishing already recognized human rights and freedoms.

Article 16. Final Provision

Autonomous production created on the basis of the common civilizational inheritance must serve the human being.

The material benefits of such production constitute a common patrimony, a fair share of which belongs to every human being not by the grace of the state, the market, or the owner of technology, but by right of human dignity and humanity’s common inheritance.