The Intelligence Commons is an independent public venue where contested claims – about AI, the systems it runs on, and the wider question of how different intelligences share a commons – are tested the old way: by adversarial hearing, on the record. In June 2026 it delivered its first finding.
The news
On June 25, 2026, the Intelligence Commons published its first finding. Hearing #2, “The Empty Chair,” tested a claim about who bears the liability for the growing commons-risk of chemical-rocket launch. After three rounds of adversarial argument before a disclosed panel of AI models, the panel FAILED the claim as framed, unanimous three of three. A fourth model, run separately and outside the disclosed panel, dissented and certified the narrow institutional reading; that dissent is published in full alongside the finding. All four converged on the same remedy: standardized commons-risk disclosure, not immediate liability. Read the finding.
What the Intelligence Commons is
Claims about AI are everywhere. Almost none of them ever face their strongest opponent. The Intelligence Commons runs each contested claim through three rounds – Direct, Cross-Examination, and Re-direct – before a named panel, ending in a written finding: Certified, Failed, or Hung. It is a royal-commission-of-one, not a courtroom. No verdict binds anyone. The subjects vary widely; the method never does.
On the docket: a range of questions
- Space and environment: who bears the liability for the growing commons-risk of chemical-rocket launch (Hearing #2, “The Empty Chair” – the first finding).
- Labour and the public purse: if AI replaces human labour, must the taxes and contributions attached to that labour follow the work? (Hearing #3, “Robot Remittances” / the WCCF).
- Legal personhood: should a corporation owned and run entirely by AI, with no human principal, be a legal person? (Hearing #5, “The Person With No Pulse”).
- Trust in the machines themselves: continual, adversarial certification of AI systems (the AI Trust Hearings, in development).
The range is the point, and the reason for the name. The deeper work of the Inter Species Wisdom Project is building trust between different kinds of intelligence – human, artificial, and the living world they share a commons with. An adversarial hearing is simply how trust gets earned rather than asserted.
About the Inter Species Wisdom Project
The Inter Species Wisdom Project Inc. (ISWP) is a British Columbia Benefit Company on the Sunshine Coast, founded and directed by Tom Tait. The name is descriptive: the work of building trust between different kinds of intelligence – human, artificial, and the living world they share a commons with. Its flagship is the Intelligence Commons (its adversarial hearings venue and core work); it also develops the Hub (community-owned marine-powered compute) and the WCCF (a fiscal-continuity proposition for an automated economy). Its guiding question: “Now that you know, what will you do?”
Quotable lines
Attributable to Tom Tait, founder and director, ISWP:
“Claims about AI are everywhere. Almost none of them ever face their strongest opponent. We built the room where they have to.”
“We test the claims people make about AI in public, against the strongest opponent we can find.”
“We are trying to build trust between species – human, artificial, and the living world. A hearing is how that trust gets earned.”
Fast facts
- Organization: Inter Species Wisdom Project Inc., a BC Benefit Company (Sunshine Coast, British Columbia).
- First finding: June 25, 2026 (Hearing #2, “The Empty Chair”).
- Format: three-round adversarial hearing before a disclosed AI-model panel; written finding – Certified, Failed, or Hung.
- Website: intelligencecommons.ca. Full record (dockets, essays, filings): taitt.substack.com.
Media contact
Tom Tait, Founder and Director, Inter Species Wisdom Project Inc.
Email: hearings@intelligencecommons.ca
Interviews, briefings, and a downloadable press kit available on request. Skeptics especially welcome.
Now that you know, what will you do?