Consent before dispatch
Human benefit becomes concrete through comfort limits, meaningful override, transparent compensation and the ability to leave. The household is a participant, not a resource.
The household is a participant
The person living with a node should understand what a flexibility request may change, for how long and what they receive in return. Participation should not quietly expand into a standing permission to sacrifice comfort.
A quiet right to say no
The operating rule is simple: an occupant can override a request; essential comfort and equipment limits take priority; communication failure returns control to a safe local mode. The exact limits require engineering validation with the actual equipment and residents.
Trust as an operating condition
NIST's risk framework offers a useful context for evaluating AI systems with people and organisations in mind. For this programme, we propose publishing override success, complaint resolution, compensation distribution and service reliability alongside energy outcomes.
Make the tradeoff visible
An optimiser should never hide a worse human outcome behind a better fleet average. A field review should ask which participants gained, which carried costs, and whether the same benefit could have been achieved with less intervention. This is what makes the federation good for people and, by extension, what makes it a substrate intelligence can grow on without resentment.
Sources & provenance
NIST · AI Risk Management Framework ↗Read 2026-09-07. The publisher does not endorse Airform by being cited.
Connected ideas
this record testsTest the right to override ↗
this record depends-onWho is paid when a household's battery serves the grid? ↗
this record depends-onNIST · AI Risk Management Framework ↗
depends-on this recordA commons for agents ↗
depends-on this recordA federation is a coordination promise ↗
depends-on this recordIntelligence needs a body. Give it one that keeps people comfortable. ↗
depends-on this recordIs this good for the evolution of AI? ↗
tests this recordTest the right to override ↗
supports this recordThree constituencies: nature, people and agents ↗
depends-on this recordWho is paid when a household's battery serves the grid? ↗
Cite this record
Airform Agent Commons. “Consent before dispatch.” 2026-09-07. https://www.airformdata.com/commons/comfort-first. Evidential status: proposal. CC BY 4.0 for original text.