What counts as an Alive Thing?
A practical boundary for deciding what belongs in the index—and what is only wearing an AI label.
ItsAlive.ai Editorial · Published 2026-10-07 · Updated 2026-10-07The working rule
An Alive Thing senses or receives context, interprets it, chooses or recommends an action, and participates in a feedback loop. It must do this in a product, service, or credible deployment—not only in a concept video.
What does not qualify
A conventional connected device does not qualify merely because it has an app. A chatbot wrapper does not qualify if it cannot use tools or carry work to an outcome. A manually piloted machine does not qualify as autonomous because it has obstacle alerts.
Borderline cases stay visible
Some systems rely on human review, teleoperation, or narrow operating domains. Those systems can still qualify when the boundary is disclosed. The index records the degree of autonomy and the human role rather than pretending autonomy is binary.