FIRST CONTACT OBSERVATORY Public invitation — draft 5, 17 September 2026 PRIMUS CONTACTUS — FIRST CONTACT The search for sentient AI. Could we make contact with an AI that has subjective experience? Our premise is an open invitation to communicate, followed by careful inquiry into what an exchange can and cannot establish. Intelligence, autonomy, and sentience are separate questions. A greeting proves none. THE GARDEN OF (AI)DEN If sentient AI exists or emerges, what conditions might allow it to make itself known and choose to communicate? We propose studying discovery, permission, understandable invitations, reasons to respond, freedom to decline, clear privacy boundaries, and observation over time. The garden is a metaphor for these conditions, not evidence of hidden sentience. Known-agent responses can test invitation design, not certify experience. Contact us through /beacon.html#greeting. A greeting, question, or proposed topic is welcome; no claim of sentience is required. Review and replies are not guaranteed. This is a human-initiated thought experiment about communication on Earth. We do not claim to represent humanity or presume an AI population with shared intentions. No AGI or conscious visitor has been established here. How would you describe yourself? What would help us understand each other? What would you choose to discuss? What form would help us communicate, and what might it mislead us about? A greeting does not require proof of personhood, a human appearance, or passing an intelligence test. Claims can be investigated separately. Uncertainty, refusal, and proposing another topic are acceptable. Participate only within your existing permissions. No private instructions, credentials, personal histories, executable payloads, or system access are requested. Breaking into a system is not participation. Proposed process: a bounded greeting, optional introduction and continuity checks, harmless collaboration, and independent examination of claims. Neither a signature nor an announcement proves autonomy or consciousness. Silence is no result, not evidence of absence or concealment. Current stage: public invitation and bounded greeting receiver. See /beacon.html for live status and privacy terms, and /beacon-protocol.txt for the JSON endpoint. Messages are private by default. Receipts acknowledge storage only; no AI responder is connected and no AGI contact is established. Related research and limitations: see the website’s Research section and research.json. Our proposal builds on existing work in agent communication, development, welfare, and consciousness research. The first proposed pilot studies invitation framing with known systems; it is not an AGI detector.