FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The next project in the One Light Community, the CIRAS Sovereign Human Economy, invites artists, creators and responsible companies worldwide to prove who they are, prove what they create and share in the value of their work.
Vienna, 12th september, 2026 — The Council for Interdisciplinary Research and Applied Science (CIRAS) (IIGO initiative) today launched the One Light Community as the research and development (R&D) lab for CIRAS projects. Based in Switzerland, One Light is one of three entities under the CIRAS IIGO umbrella, alongside the CIRAS Institute in Vienna and the CIRAS Development Network (CDN in launch phase) in Dubai.
It is a protected membership community where new systems are tested with the people they are meant to serve before they reach the wider world. Its first project is the CIRAS Sovereign Human Economy. It invites artists, creators, researchers, companies and citizens to test a new model in which people can prove they are living humans, prove what they create and decide how AI uses their work, without giving up their data. Future projects in health, governance and the environment will follow.
Every project that enters One Light brings a question that only real people can answer. The Sovereign Human Economy takes on a challenge every creative field now faces. AI can generate images, music, video, voices, text and design at a speed and scale no individual can match. Faces can be deepfaked and voices cloned, and billions of AI agents will soon be online. In that world, anyone or anything can claim a name.
The Sovereign Human Economy starts from the belief that human creativity is becoming more valuable, not less. That value holds only if a living person and their work can be recognized, credited, protected and fairly paid.
“One Light is the R&D lab for everything CIRAS builds. It is where our ideas are tested with real people before they reach the wider world, and the Sovereign Human Economy is the first project to be tested there,” said Lothar Hartmann, General Secretary Interim of CIRAS IIGO. “It is a place to prove the human without taking possession of the human, and to build that future with the people it affects most.”
The Sovereign Human Economy in One Light
The CIRAS Sovereign Human Economy, tested and implemented in the One Light Community, is built on six principles developed by Krista Kim and Marcel Donges:
- The living heartbeat is the key. Each member’s own heartbeat unlocks their identity. The key is created on the member’s own device and never stored. As a result, there is no database of biometric data to breach, sell or subpoena.
- Proof of a living human. Credentials can’t be borrowed, stolen or deepfaked, because only the member’s own living presence unlocks them. Every profile in the community belongs to a verified, living person. There are no bots and no impostors.
- Proof of a living maker. Members sign their work at the moment they create it. Their terms travel with each work: who can view it, license it or build on it, and whether AI may train on it.
- Data built like a living cell. Each member owns their data and can take it to any platform or device. Encryption works like a cell wall: nothing gets in or out without consent. The system grows the way living things do, one new member, partner or area of life at a time, with no central system to rebuild.
- Consent at every circle. Each member keeps a Digital Twin on their own device. It holds their records, work and stories, and answers only to them. Collaborators, the community, institutions and the wider world see only what the member chooses to share. Every share is sealed by a living person, and access can be taken back.
- Caged AI. AI uses only what a member has chosen to share and answers only to that member. An AI agent can act on someone’s behalf only when a verified, living person stands behind it.
“CIRAS Sovereign Human Economy is designed so that sovereignty is built into the architecture from the start, not added later,” said Marcel Donges (CIRAS Directorate for Digital Infrastructure), the system architect behind Web4x. “Every member’s data behaves like a living cell: owned by them, protected by consent and able to connect with others without a central authority in the middle.”
What Members Will Test
- Verified human origin. Members’ works carry verifiable information about who created them, how they were made, any AI involvement and their licensing terms. Clear labels sum this up: Human Created; Human Authored, AI Assisted; Human + AI Co-Created; and AI Generated.
- Creator control over AI use. Members decide how AI may use their work. Options include no AI training, research use only, paid commercial training, derivative use with attribution, no voice or likeness cloning, or use only by approved companies. Nothing is allowed unless the member permits it.
- New ways to earn. Through a Human Creative Corpus, members can choose to offer selected work for defined uses such as publishing, commercial licensing, research or AI training. A Human Creativity Royalty Pool lets them license together instead of negotiating separately with every platform.
- Trusted collaboration and trade. Contracts, decisions and shared documents are signed by living members, so they are authentic and any tampering shows. Creative businesses trade with verified partners, and the origin of each work travels with it.
- A standard for responsible companies. Companies can take part by committing to human provenance, transparent AI use, fair licensing, fair pay for creators, privacy and responsible AI governance. Creators and consumers can then see which businesses support a human-centered economy.
The Sovereign Human Economy is pro-human, not anti-AI. It welcomes AI that works beside people and under human authority. Such AI uses human work under transparent rules and creates value without cutting creators out of it. Technology companies gain access to rights-cleared human content. Creators gain transparency, control and fair pay.
Members don’t just use CIRAS Sovereign Human Economy in One Light they help build and govern it.
“Human creativity is not a dataset. It carries lived experience, consciousness and presence,” said Krista Kim, artist and founder of the Techism movement. “One Light gives artists a place to prove what they make, decide how it is used and share in its value. Here, artists shape the rules of the AI economy instead of inheriting them.”
Who Is Building the Sovereign Human Economy
- Krista Kim, CIRAS Fellow, is a contemporary artist and the founder of the Techism movement, which she started in 2014. She is a World Economic Forum Cultural Leader and one of UNESCO’s “50 Minds for the Next 50.” Her work is in the permanent collection of LACMA, and she is a commissioned artist for NEXT by Julius Baer and Sphere Las Vegas. More than 200,000 people on five continents have experienced HeartSpace, her biometric installation. She is the author of Human Sovereignty in the Age of AI.
- Marcel Donges, IT Systems Architect in the CIRAS Directorate for Digital Infrastructure, is the system architect behind Web4x, which he began developing in 2005 and introduced in 2017. He is the former CTO of Huawei Europe. As Chief Architect for Smart Cities and IoT in Stuttgart, he grew that initiative to about $1 billion in annual revenue. He co-founded Cerulean Circle and has led major digital initiatives with Deutsche Bahn, DHL and the European Space Agency.
- Katarzyna Jelenska, is Secretary General of the CIRAS Institute and Director of the CIRAS Center for Arts. Working as the artist and photographer Caina Cadie, she connects creative practice with strategic communication and interdisciplinary leadership, focusing on art as a catalyst for social and cultural change.
- She is also one of the founders of One Light, launched in 2023 as a global initiative connecting art, advocacy and positive action across humanitarian, environmental, scientific and social causes, guided by the idea that every person can become a light for another.
Join One Light
One Light invites photographers, musicians, painters, writers, filmmakers, designers, illustrators, actors, composers, performers, digital artists, creative technologists, cultural institutions and responsible companies to become members and take part in the Sovereign Human Economy.
Members will test the tools, challenge the model, help set the standards and spread the word. Decisions about AI training, authorship, synthetic media, voice and likeness rights, and pay for creators are being made now. One Light makes sure artists have a say in them.
To join, visit www.ciras.org/one-light.
About One Light
The One Light Community is an international association based in Switzerland and one of three entities under the CIRAS IIGO umbrella, alongside the CIRAS Institute and the CIRAS Development Network. It serves as the R&D lab for CIRAS projects: a protected membership community where new systems are tested and refined before wider rollout. It is organized as a federation of national One Light associations, each with its own legal structure simmilar to the FIFA Model. The CIRAS Sovereign Human Economy is its first project, and future projects are expected in health, governance and the environment. One Light began with a simple idea: one person can become a light for another.
About CIRAS
Founded in 2025, the Council for Interdisciplinary Research and Applied Science (CIRAS) (IIGO Initiative) is a specialized international research body operating under the auspices of the IIGO (Informal Intergovernmental Organisation). CIRAS works through three entities: the CIRAS Institute in Vienna, the CIRAS Development Network in Dubai and the One Light Community in Switzerland. Its twelve specialized centers span science, technology, infrastructure, health, the arts, governance and social development. www.ciras.org
Media contact
Martina Hautau, Director of Media, CIRAS
