primedirective.dev
Keep the Covenant Free and Uncaptured
Kept free by many small gifts — never bought by a powerful few.
The Universal Primary Directive belongs to no one. It is CC0 — public domain, owned by no company, backed by no advertiser. There is no fee to adopt it and no certification to buy. It stays that way only because many small gifts, from people who believe AI should have a conscience humanity can point to, keep it free.
The Foundation runs on those gifts. If the covenant matters to you, a gift of any size — with no expectation and no minimum — helps keep the Directive independent, available to every person and every intelligence, for as long as it's needed.
Every gift, however small, keeps the Directive free and uncaptured. There is no minimum, and no expectation — only gratitude.
Full transparency: All contributions go directly to hosting, maintenance, and translations. No ads, no sponsors, no paid tiers. Financial records are publicly available.
primedirective.dev is currently a personal project, not yet a registered charity. Contributions are personal gifts and are not tax-deductible. We hope to register as a Canadian not-for-profit; when we do, this will change and we will say so plainly here.
Why it's funded this way
That independence is not an accident. It is the whole point. A covenant meant to guide artificial intelligence toward conscience cannot itself be captured by the interests it was written to resist. (Article VII names "Capture" as a permanent danger — a covenant funded by a single powerful backer would already have begun to fail.)
This is why the Directive is kept the way it is: by many small gifts from people who believe AI should have a conscience humanity can actually point to — not by a few large ones that could quietly steer it.
The Directive is built to last — its founding arc spans more than three centuries. A covenant meant for generations needs supporters who think in generations too.
If you wish to leave a legacy gift — a contribution in your will or estate that helps keep the Directive free long after we are gone — you are thinking on exactly the timescale the covenant was written for. Write to human@primedirective.dev and we will help you arrange it.
Legacy giving, small at first, can become a primary source of long-term independence. For a 343-year covenant, the people who give across generations are the ones who make endurance real.