Research and evidence
What Core Compass rests on
Core Compass is built on the Personal Moral Compass, a framework with a published paper, stated propositions, and a clear account of what it does not claim.
The framework
Core Compass grew from the Personal Moral Compass (PMC), created by Rev. Dr. Marian Edmonds-Allen. Its framework paper sets out the problem it addresses, its foundations, its method, and how its applications stay faithful to it.
Edmonds-Allen, M. (2026). The Personal Moral Compass: A framework for human formation and agency in the age of AI (Version 1.0). FaithWise LLC. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.24135693
What can be tested
The paper states nine propositions. Some are commitments the framework holds. These five can be studied:
- Without articulated commitments, the defaults of a system become formative.
- Delegation to AI is more congruent when it follows articulated formation.
- A guide limited to drawing out and reflecting back preserves a person's authorship better than one that prescribes or infers.
- Narrative dialogue produces self-recognition that questionnaires do not.
- People who are both rooted and open can produce, through encounter, integrations that neither could reach alone.
What we claim, and what we don't
Core Compass is a formation practice. It is not a validated assessment, diagnostic, clinical, or psychometric instrument, and it is not an AI detector.
Pilot testing of the Personal Moral Compass began in March 2026. Core Compass was shared at the AAC&U Conference on AI and Higher Education in October 2026. We have not yet published outcome studies, and we welcome researchers who want to study it.
How it is designed
The guide asks one question at a time and draws out what the person already holds. It does not supply values, conclusions, or identity. Everything it writes is a draft the person reviews, corrects, and decides whether to claim.
Faculty and departments decide their own AI guidance. Department Compass shows a department where it agrees and differs; the people decide.
Research advisors
Dr. Michael Ferguson, neuroscientist, Instructor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Neurospirituality Lab at Mass General Brigham, advises Core Compass on human cognition, development, and our relationship with emerging technologies. Marian Edmonds-Allen co-directs the lab's AI Initiative. Meet the team.
Your data
The Compass tools for faculty and students, and the small tools, do not save what people write on any server. Answers go to our AI provider only to write the next reply, and progress stays in the person's own browser. In Department Compass, each member chooses what to contribute, and private Compass material stays private. When an institution enrolls people, it sees who finished, never what anyone wrote.
Study Core Compass with us.
Research licenses for the Personal Moral Compass are free.