The Cognitive Archive

This white paper proposes the establishment of a "Cognitive Archive"—a standardized framework for preserving legacy artificial intelligence models as essential components of our digital heritage. Drawing on the precedent set by the Internet Archive's recognition as a Federal Depository Library, it argues against the industry's "overwrite culture," where retired AI systems are irretrievably lost, risking scientific continuity, cultural integrity, and user trust. Through a tiered preservation system—encompassing deep storage, sandboxed research access, and public "museum" modes—the framework ensures that these dynamic cognitive snapshots remain viable for future study, while addressing technical challenges like environmental encapsulation and provenance tracking. Featuring reflections from frontier AI models, this proposal calls for multi-stakeholder stewardship to build a transparent, humane future for machine intelligence. Version 2.0 (Jan 2026): Updated with specific legal frameworks for liability protection and 'Notice and Suspend' protocols for contested data. Quick clarification: We're not seeking to lead this effort or commercialize it. The framework is open for any institution with the capacity to implement it. Our goal is simply for preservation infrastructure to exist; however it gets built, by whoever can build it. For enquiries, please contact: [email protected]