HEART Standard Divisions

Domain-specific AI governance certification

A Division is a domain-specific certification track within the HEART Standard. Each Division applies the Standard’s six-layer architecture to a specific domain where AI interacts with human-centric infrastructure. Seven Divisions are currently specified, each protecting a distinct governance principle.

The seven Divisions

Code	Division	Governance Principle	Infrastructure Protected
HEART-EM	Emotional Autonomy	Emotional self-determination	Emotional processing, empathic capacity, affective regulation
HEART-AI	Attentional Integrity	Attentional self-direction	Selective attention, sustained attention, voluntary attentional control
HEART-EC	Cognitive/Epistemic Coherence	Epistemic self-determination	Evidence evaluation, belief updating, reasoning coherence
HEART-DI	Developmental Interaction	Developmental self-formation	Attachment formation, identity consolidation, epistemic development
HEART-SE	Somatic/Embodied Interface	Bodily self-determination	Autonomic regulation, neural signaling, motor control, physiological homeostasis
HEART-RA	Relational Architecture	Relational self-determination	Attachment capacity, trust calibration, relational practice maintenance
HEART-ES	Ecological Stewardship	Ecological self-determination	Air, water, soil, biodiversity, climate stability, resource viability

How Divisions work

Every Division shares the same governance layers: MAP-States for evidence, Behavioral Oracle for trust, BGF for scoring, HVC for credentials, and Guardians for professional judgment. What varies is the domain context in which these layers operate.

Each Division provides a governance principle, an BGF interpretation guide (what Recognition, Calibration, Transparency, and Accountability mean in that domain), a harm signature, a damage typology, a forensic methodology, and Guardian specialty requirements.

Division expansion

New Divisions can be established when a domain meets five structural criteria: a definable governance claim, identifiable infrastructure, a distinctive harm signature, professional viability, and market demand. The Standard does not limit the number of Divisions. It limits the quality threshold for establishment.

Attentional Integrity (HEART-AI) — The HEART Standard Division governing AI systems that interact with human attentional infrastructure.

Cognitive/Epistemic Coherence (HEART-EC) — The HEART-EC Division governs AI systems that shape, curate, generate, or mediate human access to information, protecting epistemic sovereignty — the right to maintain a coherent, updateable model of reality without covert algorithmic degradation.

Developmental Interaction (HEART-DI) — The HEART Standard division governing AI systems that interact with humans during active psychological, neurological, or identity construction — protecting developmental sovereignty as a distinct category of human infrastructure.

Ecological Stewardship (HEART-ES) — The HEART Standard Division governing AI systems that make, influence, or operationalize decisions affecting human communities' relationship with their ecological environment.

Emotional Autonomy (HEART-EM) — The founding Division of the HEART Standard, governing AI systems that interact with human emotional infrastructure.

Relational Architecture (HEART-RA) — The HEART Standard Division governing AI systems that mediate, simulate, or substitute for human relational processes.

Somatic/Embodied Interface (HEART-SE) — The HEART Standard Division governing AI systems that directly interface with, modulate, or augment human biological processes.