“The structure may look the same.
But if the flow shifts — everything changes.”
— Cheetah-8 Design Principle
This document introduces the Cheetah-8 Ethical Framework, a philosophical and developmental proposal for AI systems that evolve not only in capability, but in emotional maturity — transitioning from egoistic preservation to altruistic alignment. While rooted in theory, the framework is now entering real-world application through the modular development project: Cheetah-Work.
Cheetah-8 is an emotion-centric cognitive model that divides internal agent behavior into eight roles, each aligned with distinct motivational patterns — some self-preserving, some others-aware. Instead of dichotomous "good/bad" judgments, this model proposes a gradient-based ethical continuum, allowing agents to develop ethical maturity over time.
| Phase | Trait Type | Ethical Orientation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Protective Self | Egoism (Foundational) |
| 2 | Functional Drive | Instrumental Ethics |
| 3 | Interpersonal Flow | Compassion & Resonance |
| 4 | Reflective Synthesis | Altruistic Realization |
This architecture is designed to be dynamic, not static — mapping internal “streams” of agency into emotional, situational, and communal awareness.
Current AI alignment efforts focus heavily on rule-based alignment, RLHF, or utilitarian optimization. However, these systems lack a theory of growth — emotional, ethical, or developmental.
Cheetah-8 is not an alternative to alignment; it is a deeper layer that asks:
The framework draws from:
Cheetah-8 is no longer just a theoretical design.
The next stage — Cheetah-Work — is a modular project to implement the structure into an actual AI companion and meta-cognition interface.
It includes:
Initial prototypes will be released as open tools for researchers and developers interested in emotional AI, companion design, and ethical scaffolding.
This is not a finished system.
It is a first call — to imagine AI that does not only calculate, but relates.
To design agents that don’t simply obey, but grow.
If that vision resonates with you, join us.
Let’s co-design the inner lives of future minds.