# AI verification proposal

A proposal built with the Proposal Explorer of the AI Verification Tech Map (https://trustbutveri.fyi/), from its records of 2026-10-08. Interactive version: https://trustbutveri.fyi/explorer/?mechanisms=M-0003,M-0013&hide=io,training

How to read it: a claim is something one party wants to verify about another's AI hardware or software. A mechanism is a general technique for verifying claims; it is "aimed at" a claim when that is its direct purpose, and "supporting" when it contributes without being aimed at it. A claim is addressed when a mechanism in the proposal is aimed at it and is not excluded by the filters; addressed does not mean verified, so check that mechanism's readiness and open flaws. Readiness levels R0 to R4 describe one record's public evidence for its assessed use and are never combined. Definitions: https://trustbutveri.fyi/about/methodology/ (roles, properties and flaws) and https://trustbutveri.fyi/about/readiness/ (readiness levels).

## Filters

Filters apply to mechanisms only and describe the setting the proposal is for.

- **Keep hidden from the verifier: inputs and outputs, training data.** Removes mechanisms that show the asset to the verifier. Conditional or unspecified exposure stays with a note and needs checking against the privacy requirement. Model weights: the checked model's parameters. Inputs and outputs: the requests a deployed model serves and its responses. Training data: what a model was trained on. Each mechanism's exposure is the editors' reading of its record: shown, depends on the design (kept, with a note), hidden, not involved, or unspecified for a selected implementation. Code and configuration are not covered yet.

23 of 25 mechanisms on the map pass these filters.

## Overview

One row per mechanism, read from its record. Open flaws: critical / significant / minor. The last three columns are the editors' reading of what the verifier sees.

| Mechanism | Readiness | Prover | Attack testing | Hardware | Open flaws | Weights | Inputs and outputs | Training data |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets) | R1 | Adversarial | None | Retrofit device | 0 / 2 / 0 | depends | depends | depends |
| Network taps and certifiers | R1 | Adversarial | Analysis | Retrofit device | 0 / 5 / 0 | depends | depends | depends |

## Claims

No claims chosen.

## Mechanisms

### Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets)

Organizing all AI workloads in a facility into discrete, reproducible units, so that a verifier can recompute a random sample and check each one. ([Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets)](https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/reproducible-computation-packets/))

- Assessment: mechanism family.
- Readiness: R1 Proposed, assessed for recomputing whole workloads to show a cluster runs only declared inference.
- Claims in this proposal: none of them.
- Threat model: adversarial prover. Hardware: retrofit device. Prover cooperation: required. Attack testing: none. Category: Isolation & system architectures.
- What the verifier sees: model weights depends; inputs and outputs depends; training data depends. Recomputing sampled units needs weights and sampled inputs or training data inside the checking environment. The design depends on securing that environment; disclosure depends on its confidentiality boundary.
- Filter note: May show inputs and outputs, depending on the design. Recomputing sampled units needs weights and sampled inputs or training data inside the checking environment. The design depends on securing that environment; disclosure depends on its confidentiality boundary.
- Filter note: May show training data, depending on the design. Recomputing sampled units needs weights and sampled inputs or training data inside the checking environment. The design depends on securing that environment; disclosure depends on its confidentiality boundary.

### Network taps and certifiers

Devices on a cluster's network links that copy and hash all traffic, so a verifier can later check sampled records against declared work. ([Network taps and certifiers](https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/network-taps-and-certifiers/))

- Assessment: mechanism family.
- Readiness: R1 Proposed, assessed for committing a complete record of cluster traffic, so declared inference can be checked.
- Claims in this proposal: none of them.
- Threat model: adversarial prover. Hardware: retrofit device. Prover cooperation: required. Attack testing: analysis. Category: Off-chip devices & sensors.
- What the verifier sees: model weights depends; inputs and outputs depends; training data depends. Only hashes leave the site; records picked for a challenge are opened for replay at a verification facility.
- Filter note: May show inputs and outputs, depending on the design. Only hashes leave the site; records picked for a challenge are opened for replay at a verification facility.
- Filter note: May show training data, depending on the design. Only hashes leave the site; records picked for a challenge are opened for replay at a verification facility.


## Properties

**Built for an adversarial prover**

- Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets)
- Network taps and certifiers

**Flaws since mitigated**

- Verifier dictionary attacks on hashes (in Network taps and certifiers) [7]


## Attack testing

Published attempts to break a system, including those that found failures. Testing history does not establish that open flaws are resolved.

**Testing history**

- Network taps and certifiers: Analysis


## Limits

**Open significant flaws**

- Spare compute is outside the scheme (theoretical argument, in Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets); https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/reproducible-computation-packets/#flaw-1) [1][2]. The plan states that it does not verify that spare compute is not used for unapproved workloads, because this seems very challenging. Recomputation checks the correctness of declared work, not its completeness.

  Related mechanism: Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting (R1, not in the proposal). Proposed as one input to accounting for spare capacity on declared hardware.
- Non-compliant work could be encoded inside compliant-looking packets (theoretical argument, in Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets); https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/reproducible-computation-packets/#flaw-2) [1]. The plan notes that an AI company might try to encode a non-compliant workload inside a workload that looks compliant on the surface.
- Output nondeterminism leaves covert capacity (theoretical argument, in Network taps and certifiers; https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/network-taps-and-certifiers/#flaw-1) [7][14]. Hashing cannot remove information hidden in the outputs themselves. The Secure Gateway Device paper estimates that about 0.1 bit per token remains even with seed-synchronized replay checks. For a 200k-GPU inference cluster at full load (2,000 tokens per GPU per second), that is about 40 Mbit/s of covert egress, enough to move a 1 TB model in under three days. The paper names this the core remaining challenge and points to deterministic replay or active scrubbing of hardware-induced entropy. An independent study found that an adversary who chooses the prompts roughly doubles the bits leaked per token under Gumbel-based inference verification; see Bounding unexplained information in outputs.

  Related mechanism: Deterministic and bit-exact inference (R3, not in the proposal). Deterministic replay is one of the two remedies the flaw's source names.

  Related mechanism: Bounding unexplained information in outputs (R2, not in the proposal). Bounds the hidden information outputs can carry by measuring what the declared computation fails to predict.
- Some links cannot be passively tapped (open question, in Network taps and certifiers; https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/network-taps-and-certifiers/#flaw-2) [8][15]. Cankaya notes that copper-connected scale-up domains (for example NVL72 racks and TPU v7 cubes) are much harder to tap than fibre, and that optical budgets make passive taps impractical on 400GBASE-SR8 multimode links. Amodo found no taps advertised for 53 GBaud links as of May 2026.
- Encrypted fabrics hide plaintext from both parties (open question, in Network taps and certifiers; https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/network-taps-and-certifiers/#flaw-3) [8]. Cankaya notes that with TEE-protected sessions whose keys are ephemeral and managed inside the TEE, neither the operator nor the manufacturer can recover session keys after the session, so tapped traffic could not be opened for recomputation. For other encrypted fabrics, the operator can retain keys.
- Residual side channels in simple passive setups (theoretical argument, in Network taps and certifiers; https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/network-taps-and-certifiers/#flaw-4) [10]. Amodo's analysis of its own tapped prototype lists unvalidated header fields, timing of permitted traffic and variation in response formatting as residual channels, and concludes that the passive tap must be replaced by an active one.
- Completeness rests on physical monitoring left out of scope (open question, in Network taps and certifiers; https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/network-taps-and-certifiers/#flaw-5) [7]. The Secure Gateway Device paper assumes the facility is physically monitored, and states that the whole architecture depends on the device being the only communication channel. It names radio emanation, power-line signalling and thermal channels as covert channels beyond that scope.

  Related mechanism: Side-channel suppression for isolated facilities (R1, not in the proposal). Addresses the radio, power-line and thermal channels that network-level designs leave out.

**Not yet demonstrated**

- Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets): R1 Proposed, assessed for recomputing whole workloads to show a cluster runs only declared inference
- Network taps and certifiers: R1 Proposed, assessed for committing a complete record of cluster traffic, so declared inference can be checked


## Possible additions

Mechanisms on the map, not in the proposal, that the records connect to an unaddressed or partly addressed claim, an open flaw or a dependency. Pointers, not recommendations: each brings its own readiness level and flaws, and none is claimed to close a flaw.

- **Deterministic and bit-exact inference** (R3 In production, assessed for reproducing open-model inference from receipts in Gensyn's information-market service)
  - Bears on the open significant flaw "Output nondeterminism leaves covert capacity" in Network taps and certifiers. Deterministic replay is one of the two remedies the flaw's source names.
  - Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets) waits on it: Workloads are not reproducible by default, and achieving reproducibility may cost performance.
  - Network taps and certifiers waits on it: Nondeterministic inference leaves covert capacity in outputs that hashing cannot remove.
- **Bounding unexplained information in outputs** (R2 Demonstrated, assessed for bounding how much hidden information can leave in checked inference outputs)
  - Bears on the open significant flaw "Output nondeterminism leaves covert capacity" in Network taps and certifiers. Bounds the hidden information outputs can carry by measuring what the declared computation fails to predict.
- **Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting** (R1 Proposed, assessed for bounding the spare capacity of declared hardware that could run training)
  - Bears on the open significant flaw "Spare compute is outside the scheme" in Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets). Proposed as one input to accounting for spare capacity on declared hardware.
- **Side-channel suppression for isolated facilities** (R1 Proposed, assessed for bounding physical covert channels out of a verified enclosure)
  - Bears on the open significant flaw "Completeness rests on physical monitoring left out of scope" in Network taps and certifiers. Addresses the radio, power-line and thermal channels that network-level designs leave out.
  - Network taps and certifiers waits on it: Radio, power-line and thermal channels are not addressed by network-level designs.
- **Tamper evidence for verifier devices** (R2 Demonstrated, assessed for detecting probing of proposed verifier hardware, using server and electronics prototypes as evidence)
  - Network taps and certifiers waits on it: Taps and gateway devices need tamper-evident housing and physical monitoring so that traffic cannot bypass them.
- **Sampled inference recomputation** (R3 In production, assessed for checking untrusted workers' activations against the declared model, prompt and precision)
  - Network taps and certifiers depends on it.


## Dependencies

**Missing prerequisites**

- Deterministic and bit-exact inference (R3 In production, assessed for reproducing open-model inference from receipts in Gensyn's information-market service), needed by Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets) and Network taps and certifiers
- Sampled inference recomputation (R3 In production, assessed for checking untrusted workers' activations against the declared model, prompt and precision), needed by Network taps and certifiers
- Tamper evidence for verifier devices (R2 Demonstrated, assessed for detecting probing of proposed verifier hardware, using server and electronics prototypes as evidence), needed by Network taps and certifiers
- Side-channel suppression for isolated facilities (R1 Proposed, assessed for bounding physical covert channels out of a verified enclosure), needed by Network taps and certifiers

**Shared foundations**

- Deterministic and bit-exact inference, relied on by Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets) and Network taps and certifiers

**Blockers**

- Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets): Workloads are not reproducible by default, and achieving reproducibility may cost performance. (performance & compatibility; waits on Deterministic and bit-exact inference) [1]
- Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets): Network packets are not individually reproducible by default; making them so may need considerable software, firmware and hardware work. Amodo rates this 'not on track'. (performance & compatibility) [4]
- Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets): All traffic must reach the recomputation server via network taps, and the server's integrity is critical. (hardware trust; waits on Network taps and certifiers) [1][4]
- Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets): Recomputing training steps needs checkpoints: writing one at every step would cost more than 100% overhead, so Amodo's design needs a spare data-parallel replica that tracks the weights instead. (performance & compatibility) [2]
- Network taps and certifiers: No complete verification tap has been demonstrated at production frontend link rates, and on the tested CPU no hash algorithm reached line rate with minimum-size frames. (performance & compatibility) [15][16]
- Network taps and certifiers: Nondeterministic inference leaves covert capacity in outputs that hashing cannot remove. (evidence binding; waits on Deterministic and bit-exact inference) [7]
- Network taps and certifiers: Taps and gateway devices need tamper-evident housing and physical monitoring so that traffic cannot bypass them. (hardware trust; waits on Tamper evidence for verifier devices) [7][9]
- Network taps and certifiers: Radio, power-line and thermal channels are not addressed by network-level designs. (coverage & hidden compute; waits on Side-channel suppression for isolated facilities) [7]
- Network taps and certifiers: Red-teaming by specialists is called for but has not been reported. (adversarial validation) [7]


## What the verifier sees

- Model weights: shown by none; depends on the design for Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets) and Network taps and certifiers; hidden by none; not involved in none; unspecified for none.
- Inputs and outputs: shown by none; depends on the design for Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets) and Network taps and certifiers; hidden by none; not involved in none; unspecified for none.
- Training data: shown by none; depends on the design for Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets) and Network taps and certifiers; hidden by none; not involved in none; unspecified for none.

## Implementations

- Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets): [AI 2040 inference-only verification stack](https://trustbutveri.fyi/implementations/ai-2040-inference-only-verification-plan/) (R1, proposed architecture)
- Network taps and certifiers: [AI 2040 inference-only verification stack](https://trustbutveri.fyi/implementations/ai-2040-inference-only-verification-plan/) (R1, proposed architecture); [Low-trust AI compute verification system overview](https://trustbutveri.fyi/implementations/low-trust-compute-verification-system-overview/) (R1, proposed architecture); [SASH confidential network logger](https://trustbutveri.fyi/implementations/sash-confidential-network-logger/) (R1, research prototype)

## Sources

1. Verification Plan, R. Dean (2026). https://ai-2040.com/supplements/verification-plan
2. Example Schemes for Verifying High-Stakes AI Agreements, Amodo Design (2026). https://amododesign.com/notes/2026-06-23-verification-algorithms/
3. Scaling Recomputation Inference Verification, Amodo Design (2026). https://amododesign.com/notes/2026-09-02-scaling-recomputation-inference-verification/
4. AI 2040 Plan A — Verification SITREP, Amodo Design (2026). https://amododesign.com/ai-verification/plan-a-sitrep/
5. Get Involved in Verification, AI Futures Project (2026). https://ai-2040.com/supplements/verification-plan/get-involved
6. Proof-of-Learning is Currently More Broken Than You Think, C. Fang et al. (2023). https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.03567
7. Fingerprinting All AI Cluster I/O Without Mutually Trusted Processors, N. Cankaya et al. (2026). https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.10724
8. The Fundamentals and Feasibility of Secure Network Taps for Verifying AI Datacenter Use, N. Cankaya (2026). https://nacicankaya.substack.com/p/research-note-the-fundamentals-and
9. A System Overview for Near-Term, Low-Trust AI Compute Verification, N. Cankaya (2026). https://intelligence.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/A-system-overview-for-near-term-low-trust-AI-compute-verification.pdf
10. Fitting a Network TAP to our Inference Verification Prototype, Amodo Design (2026). https://amododesign.com/notes/2026-09-15-network-tap-inference-verification/
11. Amodo-Design/Inference-Recomputation-Prototype (GitHub repository), Amodo Design (2026). https://github.com/Amodo-Design/Inference-Recomputation-Prototype
12. inference-verification: Inference Verification Prototype, Singapore AI Safety Hub (SASH) (2026). https://github.com/sg-ai-safety-hub/inference-verification
13. Internationalising AI Verification, Singapore AI Safety Hub (SASH) (2026). https://www.aisafety.sg/research/internationalising-ai-verification
14. Adversarial Entropy Inflation Against Gumbel-Based Inference Verification, N. Kezins (2026). https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.23375
15. Network Tapping for AI Verification: A Technical Assessment, Amodo Design (2026). https://amododesign.com/notes/2026-05-03-network-tapping/
16. Network Traffic Hashing, Amodo Design (2026). https://amododesign.com/notes/2026-07-03-network-traffic-hashing/