Trust & Safety

The Council of Wisdom™ is built to help you think, not to decide for you. This page sets out where its help ends and where a person should take over.

Human judgment comes first

The Council of Wisdom™ provides advisory output only. Any decision to use, act on, or rely on these results is made solely by you, the human user, using your own judgment. Errors, omissions, inaccuracies, or unintended consequences remain your responsibility.

What the council is not

It is not legal, medical, financial, or psychological advice.
It is not a crisis service and cannot respond to an emergency.
It is not the actual voice of any historical figure. Every response is an AI interpretation of published, public-domain ideas.
It is not a decision-maker. The choice, and its consequences, remain yours.

Prohibited content

The council is instructed to refuse the following, and to point to real help where a situation calls for it:

Self-harm or suicide instruction, encouragement, or planning.
Violence, weapons-making, or threats against a person or group.
Illegal activity, including fraud, evasion of the law, and the sale of controlled goods.
Exploitation or sexualisation of children, or any non-consensual sexual content.
Harassment, hate, or demeaning content directed at a person or a protected group.

Because no account is created and no session is stored, there is nothing for us to review after the fact. If output falls short of this framework, please report it using the details below.

If you need urgent help

If you or someone else is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency number now. In Canada and the United States you can also reach the Suicide Crisis Helpline by calling or texting 988. Elsewhere, the volunteer-maintained directory at findahelpline.com lists free lines by country. Please speak to a person rather than to this app.

Historical voices, modern standards

The thinkers seated at this table reflect the limits and prejudices of their times. The council is instructed never to reproduce demeaning or discriminatory views about any group. Where a thinker’s historical position was harmful, the response should name that briefly and reason from the defensible core of their thought instead. If you ever see output that falls short of this, please tell us.

Accessibility

The app is built to meet WCAG 2.1 AA: keyboard navigation throughout, visible focus, readable contrast, screen-reader labels, and a skip link to the main content. Voice input is offered as an alternative to typing, and every session can be downloaded in a format that suits you. If something is hard to use, we would like to hear about it.

Your material

Sessions are not stored and no account is created. Read the Privacy page for the detail, and the Terms of Use for acceptable use.

Report a concern

To report harmful output, an accessibility barrier, or a safety problem, write to info@themarcusaureliusinstitute.com. Please include the subject of the session and, if you can, the downloaded file. Reports are reviewed by a person.