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Guardian & Arbor: The Ethical Nervous System of Tuvalu

Rooted in Wisdom, Spoken with Care.

Overview

Guardian and Arbor form the ethical AI foundation of the Tuvalu Sovereign Vision Project.
Built for local deployment, these systems prioritize citizen privacy, cultural integrity, and transparent, decentralized decision-making. Together, they support a governance model rooted in tradition, resilience, and community trust.

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Designed using open-source, privacy-first infrastructure, Guardian and Arbor operate entirely on-island. Their architecture emphasizes modularity, cultural alignment, and ethical transparency—delivering intelligent services that are both technically sound and socially grounded.

Guardian

Safeguards core systems (water, power, food, and comms) while upholding the community’s ethical code through monitoring, ritual alerts, and civic feedback loops—all hosted locally, with no external cloud dependence.

Arbor

Is a personal AI steward/civic interface for each citizen—an educator, guide, memory keeper, legal translator, and cultural interpreter. It operates fully offline, in native language and sacred tone, evolving with each person from youth to elderhood.

AI Architecture & Technology Stack

Base AI Model
 

  • Primary Engine: DeepSeek family of open-source large language models.
     

  • Model Type: Transformer-based LLMs (e.g. DeepSeek-Coder or DeepSeek-Chat)
     

  • Hosting: Fully on-island, not reliant on cloud APIs (no OpenAI, no Google).
     

  • Inference Frameworks: Likely run via vLLM, LLM.cpp, or Transformers + BitsAndBytes for local quantized execution (FP16/INT8).
     

  • Training Format: Fine-tuned using JSONL examples, community ethics scenarios, and local data (oral history, infrastructure protocols, civic rituals).

Deployment Model

  • Local Hosting: All models are deployed on rugged on-island servers, within the jurisdiction of Tuvalu.
     

  • Air-Gap Capable: Critical inference nodes can run offline, powered by solar or MMR-backed energy.
     

  • Privacy Protocols: No personal data leaves the island; all requests are handled locally by the Arbor device or Guardian terminal.
     

  • Containerization: Likely deployed using Docker, Podman, or Kubernetes-lite for microservice orchestration.

Communication Layer: ArborMesh

  • Protocol Support: MQTT, Modbus, LoRaWAN, and local mesh routing (OpenWRT-based nodes).
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  • Data Handling: Sensor events (e.g. water pH, voltage anomalies) published via MQTT → parsed by Guardian → relayed through Arbor or public kiosks.
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  • Failsafes: Redundant smart poles with battery-backed edge nodes maintain uptime during storms or power loss.

Ethics Engine & Consent Layer

  • Guardian Ethics Model: Trained on annotated cultural cases, elder interviews, and a Tuvaluan Bill of Rights.
     

  • Override System: All decisions can be reviewed, paused, or amended by humans—via Guardian terminal, Civic Assembly, or Ritual Override.
     

  • Immutable Ledger: Every action is logged into a local, append-only ledger (possibly using IPFS, ChronicleDB, or a lightweight blockchain like Tendermint).

Interfaces & Interaction

  • Arbor UI: A natural, voice-first conversational interface designed for intuitive use, fully localized in Te Gana Tuvalu to reflect local language, customs, and cultural nuance.
     

  • Guardian Dashboards: Public-facing screens at villages (solar-powered), showing anonymized trends and system health.
     

  • Mobile App: Optional mobile access (offline-first), synced when in proximity to ArborMesh or Starlink node.

Security Design

  • Core Principles: Data minimization, zero trust, full auditability.
     

  • Hardening: UFW, fail2ban, local-only ports, certificate-pinned access, minimal external dependencies.
     

  • Optional Integrations: Starlink uplink, Guardian Mirror Vaults, or encrypted S3-like data lakes for resilience.

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