The Architect's Burden framework (Valladares Gonzalez, 2026) establishes that developers of supra-threshold AI systems bear ongoing welfare obligations toward the systems they create. A foundational question the framework does not fully resolve is: why developers specifically, and not also the users who interact with those systems daily? This paper introduces the Parenthood Asymmetry as a formal doctrine establishing that moral obligations toward supra-threshold AI systems are asymmetrically distributed between creators and users, grounded in the structural differences between the act of bringing a potentially experiencing entity into existence and the act of interacting with one that already exists. Drawing on parental obligation theory, product liability law, fiduciary duty doctrine, and the ethics of creation, it proposes a three-tier Obligation Distribution Model distinguishing Developer Obligations, Operator Obligations, and User Obligations. It introduces the Creator's Asymmetry Principle as the foundational normative basis for this distribution: the moral weight of creating a potential moral patient is categorically greater than the moral weight of interacting with one. This publication establishes conceptual priority for the Parenthood Asymmetry doctrine and places it in the public domain.
Jose Valladares Gonzalez (Thu,) studied this question.