# 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-0024&hide=weights

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: model weights.** 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.

24 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Bounding unexplained information in outputs | R2 | Adversarial | Independent red-team | Retrofit device | 0 / 4 / 0 | depends | depends | not involved |

## Claims

No claims chosen.

## Mechanisms

### Bounding unexplained information in outputs

Limits the hidden information a facility's outputs can carry by measuring how much of those outputs the declared computation fails to predict. ([Bounding unexplained information in outputs](https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/bounding-unexplained-information/))

- Assessment: mechanism family.
- Readiness: R2 Demonstrated, assessed for bounding how much hidden information can leave in checked inference outputs.
- Claims in this proposal: none of them.
- Threat model: adversarial prover. Hardware: retrofit device. Prover cooperation: required. Attack testing: independent red-team. Category: Isolation & system architectures.
- What the verifier sees: model weights depends; inputs and outputs depends; training data not involved. Depends on where recomputation runs: in a sealed enclosure, or with zero-knowledge proofs, the verifier need not see the weights or the traffic.
- Filter note: May show model weights, depending on the design. Depends on where recomputation runs: in a sealed enclosure, or with zero-knowledge proofs, the verifier need not see the weights or the traffic.


## Properties

**Built for an adversarial prover**

- Bounding unexplained information in outputs


## 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**

- Bounding unexplained information in outputs: Independent red-team


## Limits

**Open significant flaws**

- Prompt-controlled entropy inflation widens the covert channel (demonstrated attack, in Bounding unexplained information in outputs; https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/bounding-unexplained-information/#flaw-1) [2][3]. Gumbel-based inference verification tolerates token choices that honest GPU nondeterminism could produce, and the size of that tolerated set grows with the model's output entropy. Kezins, an independent researcher, showed that an adversary who controls the prompt distribution can raise output entropy and roughly double the bits leaked per token. Across six models of 1 to 32 billion parameters, this cut the slowdown from 146–254 times under benign prompts to 60–118 times. Kezins argues that architectures built on the same unexplained-information bound inherit this attack surface, and recommends calibrating tolerances against local token entropy rather than benign traffic.

  Related mechanism: Deterministic and bit-exact inference (R3, not in the proposal). Bit-exact replay would remove the tolerance for numerical noise that sets the size of this channel. The record notes that it needs full hardware and software metadata.
- Information the declared computation explains is not bounded (theoretical argument, in Bounding unexplained information in outputs; https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/bounding-unexplained-information/#flaw-2) [1][4]. The bound limits unexplained bits only. Outputs that the declared computation fully explains can still carry valuable information: a compression study notes that an adversary with inference access can extract more proprietary information per bit than naive transmission allows.
- Channels other than checked outputs are outside the bound (theoretical argument, in Bounding unexplained information in outputs; https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/bounding-unexplained-information/#flaw-3) [2][5]. The inference-verification scheme treats side channels as out of scope. A low-trust system design argues that suppressing physical covert bandwidth below kilobits per second is much more achievable than aiming for zero, and that a malicious device can leak one bit of information by deliberately outputting a wrong result.

  Related mechanism: Side-channel suppression for isolated facilities (R1, not in the proposal). Physical side channels need separate suppression, which is this mechanism's purpose.
- The facility-level design is untested (open question, in Bounding unexplained information in outputs; https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/bounding-unexplained-information/#flaw-4) [1]. The compute-verification architecture is described with protocol details, potential attacks and prototyping plans, but no prototype results have been published.


## 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 "Prompt-controlled entropy inflation widens the covert channel" in Bounding unexplained information in outputs. Bit-exact replay would remove the tolerance for numerical noise that sets the size of this channel. The record notes that it needs full hardware and software metadata.
  - Bounding unexplained information in outputs waits on it: Tolerance for numerical nondeterminism sets the size of the residual channel; bit-exact replay would remove it but needs full hardware and software metadata.
- **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 "Channels other than checked outputs are outside the bound" in Bounding unexplained information in outputs. Physical side channels need separate suppression, which is this mechanism's purpose.
  - Bounding unexplained information in outputs waits on it: Physical side channels need separate suppression, and one design treats a low residual bandwidth, rather than zero, as the realistic target.
- **Bandwidth limits and compartmentalization** (R2 Demonstrated, assessed for monitoring inter-node traffic with operator-run software on four GPUs)
  - Bounding unexplained information in outputs waits on it: The prover's compute must be isolated so that all traffic passes through the verifier's interlock; any unmonitored path voids the bound.
- **Sampled inference recomputation** (R3 In production, assessed for checking untrusted workers' activations against the declared model, prompt and precision)
  - Bounding unexplained information in outputs depends on it.
- **Network taps and certifiers** (R1 Proposed, assessed for committing a complete record of cluster traffic, so declared inference can be checked)
  - Bounding unexplained information in outputs depends on it.


## Dependencies

**Missing prerequisites**

- Sampled inference recomputation (R3 In production, assessed for checking untrusted workers' activations against the declared model, prompt and precision), needed by Bounding unexplained information in outputs
- Bandwidth limits and compartmentalization (R2 Demonstrated, assessed for monitoring inter-node traffic with operator-run software on four GPUs), needed by Bounding unexplained information in outputs
- Side-channel suppression for isolated facilities (R1 Proposed, assessed for bounding physical covert channels out of a verified enclosure), needed by Bounding unexplained information in outputs
- Network taps and certifiers (R1 Proposed, assessed for committing a complete record of cluster traffic, so declared inference can be checked), needed by Bounding unexplained information in outputs

**Blockers**

- Bounding unexplained information in outputs: The prover's compute must be isolated so that all traffic passes through the verifier's interlock; any unmonitored path voids the bound. (coverage & hidden compute; waits on Bandwidth limits and compartmentalization) [1]
- Bounding unexplained information in outputs: Physical side channels need separate suppression, and one design treats a low residual bandwidth, rather than zero, as the realistic target. (coverage & hidden compute; waits on Side-channel suppression for isolated facilities) [2][5]
- Bounding unexplained information in outputs: Tolerance for numerical nondeterminism sets the size of the residual channel; bit-exact replay would remove it but needs full hardware and software metadata. (protocol soundness; waits on Deterministic and bit-exact inference) [3][5]
- Bounding unexplained information in outputs: Recomputation over confidential weights and inputs needs a protected setting: prover recomputation in a verifier-controlled enclosure, verifier recomputation in a prover-controlled enclosure, or zero-knowledge proofs. (privacy & leakage) [1]
- Bounding unexplained information in outputs: No prototype of the facility-level architecture exists to red-team. (adversarial validation) [1]


## What the verifier sees

- Model weights: shown by none; depends on the design for Bounding unexplained information in outputs; hidden by none; not involved in none; unspecified for none.
- Inputs and outputs: shown by none; depends on the design for Bounding unexplained information in outputs; hidden by none; not involved in none; unspecified for none.
- Training data: shown by none; depends on the design for none; hidden by none; not involved in Bounding unexplained information in outputs; unspecified for none.

## Implementations

- Bounding unexplained information in outputs: none on the map

## Sources

1. Verifying AI Compute by Bounding Unexplained Information Exfiltration, J. Petrie & Y. Mühlhäuser (2026). https://openreview.net/forum?id=qtgG5HZSsk
2. Verifying LLM Inference to Detect Model Weight Exfiltration, R. Rinberg et al. (2025). https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.02620
3. Adversarial Entropy Inflation Against Gumbel-Based Inference Verification, N. Kezins (2026). https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.23375
4. Haiku to Opus in Just 10 bits: LLMs Unlock Large Compression Gains, R. Rinberg et al. (2026). https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.02343
5. 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