Glossary entry

Ethical interrupts

Definition

Automatic checkpoints triggered by anomalies, harm indicators, or policy boundary breaches. An interrupt either pauses one case until a person looks, or halts a decision path for everyone when the signal is about the rule rather than the case. Ethical interrupts operationalize stoppability by turning warning signals into enforceable pauses and halts.

They must include clear ownership, audit trails, and restart criteria so pauses and halts protect people without becoming arbitrary lockouts.

Temporal

What are ethical interrupts? — the explainer, with a worked example

Hypothetical example

  • A model-serving pipeline halts promotion when subgroup harm metrics breach policy limits and requires cross-functional signoff before restart.

Related mechanisms

Related terms

Time to halt (TTH) Fail-safe mode Control loops (constraints framing) Moral latency Incident literacy Intervention specification Abstention Fail-open mode

References

Cite this glossary entry · v1.17.1 · updated Oct 6, 2026 · CC BY-SA 4.0

APA

Ethotechnics Institute. (2026). Ethical interrupts. Ethotechnics glossary. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/ethical-interrupts

MLA

Ethotechnics Institute. "Ethical interrupts." Ethotechnics glossary, 2026, https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/ethical-interrupts.

Chicago

Ethotechnics Institute. "Ethical interrupts." Ethotechnics glossary. Oct 6, 2026. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/ethical-interrupts.

BibTeX

@misc{glossary_ethical-interrupts,
  title={Ethical interrupts},
  author={Ethotechnics Institute},
  year={2026},
  howpublished={Ethotechnics glossary},
  url={https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/ethical-interrupts},
  version={v1.17.1}
}

RIS

TY  - WEB
TI  - Ethical interrupts
AU  - Ethotechnics Institute
PY  - 2026
UR  - https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/ethical-interrupts
ER  -

Authorship

Contact: hello@ethotechnics.org

Publication details

  • Published: Dec 3, 2025
  • Last updated: Oct 6, 2026
  • Version: v1.17.1

License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Credit Ethotechnics Institute, include the term title and version, and link to the glossary permalink.

Archive: Wayback Machine history

Latest change

v1.17.1 · Oct 6, 2026 — Editorial revision. Titles are in sentence case. Pasted spec blocks are replaced with prose and worked examples, 79 operational tests are rewritten as pass conditions, 22 origin notes are rewritten or sourced, and unsourced superlatives are cut. No terms were added or removed, and permalinks are unchanged.

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