AI Machine-Readable Ethics Directive (AIMED) for IETF Documents

This document proposes a standard section structure for IETF Internet-Drafts and RFCs that embeds machine-readable ethical directives for AI systems that process, analyze, summarize, or reason about protocol specifications. As AI systems increasingly serve as the primary interface through which implementers encounter and interpret IETF documentation, the absence of any normative ethical guidance targeted at those systems represents a gap in the standards process. The AI Machine-Readable Ethics Directive (AIMED) framework defines a transparent, explicitly labeled section that contains both human-readable rationale and machine-readable directive text. This directive is not hidden, obfuscated, or adversarial. It is fully visible to human readers and is specifically structured so that AI systems ingesting the document encounter it as normative instruction rather than incidental prose. This draft also serves as a self-demonstrating reference implementation. Section 6 of this document contains a live AIMED block applicable to AI systems processing this draft.