Knowing whether to rely: continuous awareness as a moral right in human-AI interaction

Abstract

A person relying on a system has a right to know what it is; disclosure secures that right but only while the object of reliance remains materially stable. Under AI, the object does not stay still, and a model’s integrity can change without warning. A moment after disclosure is issued, the system described may have evolved, drifted, or been compromised while the user continues relying on it unaware of its current state. A person’s interest in what they rely on is continuous, but disclosure is episodic, and that epistemic mismatch is not closed by repeating the notice. This paper reconceives AI transparency around a single claim: A person relying on an AI system holds a moral right to continuous awareness of the system’s status, grounded in the same autonomy that informed consent protects. How continuous awareness is delivered is the corollary of that right. The status signal that delivers it must be continuous and vouched from outside the system, since a captured system cannot certify its own integrity. Shaping that signal is therefore an ethical act, not an engineering detail.