Trustworthy autonomy requires more than intelligence.
OMWEI explores the architectures, mechanisms, and evidence required for autonomous systems to act with justified authority.
As intelligent systems move from generating information to taking actions in the real world, trust must extend from what a system decides to what it actually does.
Explore OMWEI on GitHubWhat we work on
Trustworthy autonomous action spans several distinct questions. OMWEI studies them as connected but separable parts of the system.
Identity
Who is acting, and what can be established about the system and its operational state?
Decision
What was decided, under which conditions, and with what supporting evidence?
Authority
What permits a system to create a particular effect in the world?
Execution
What guarantees that an authorized action is the action that actually occurs?
Research Areas
OMWEI brings together complementary research areas addressing trustworthy autonomy from different technical and institutional perspectives.
Agent Identity & Integrity
Understanding what an autonomous system is, what it contains, and whether its operational state can be trusted.
- Agent identity
- Provenance
- Attestation
- Runtime integrity
Execution Governance
Exploring how autonomous decisions become authorized effects in the real world.
- Execution authority
- Authorization
- Commit governance
- State transition integrity
Embodied Autonomy
Researching trustworthy autonomy in systems that interact with physical environments.
- Robotics
- Industrial systems
- Autonomous vehicles
- Safety-critical applications
Assurance & Recognition
Exploring how autonomous systems can become trusted participants within human institutions.
- Assurance
- Regulatory frameworks
- Accountability
- Trust models
Principles
Properties over technologies
Trustworthy autonomy should be defined by required properties and guarantees, not by a specific implementation technology.
Evidence over claims
Claims about autonomous systems should be supported by verifiable evidence and reproducible evaluation.
Intelligence ≠ authority
The ability to make decisions and the authority to create real-world effects are distinct concepts and should not be implicitly merged.
Open inquiry
No architecture should be accepted without rigorous examination, comparison, and challenge.
Community
OMWEI is an open initiative welcoming researchers, engineers, organizations, and practitioners interested in trustworthy autonomy.
The initiative is designed as a neutral space for collaboration across industry, academia, and society.
Contributors may bring research, technical implementations, evaluation methods, or other work that advances understanding of trustworthy autonomous systems.