# 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-0007,M-0024

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.

None set. Every mechanism on the map was available.

## 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 |
| Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting | R1 | Adversarial | Analysis | None | 0 / 3 / 0 | depends | depends | not involved |
| Bounding unexplained information in outputs | R2 | Adversarial | Independent red-team | Retrofit device | 0 / 4 / 0 | depends | depends | not involved |

## 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.

### Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting

Cryptographic evidence that a given amount of matrix-multiplication work was completed, proposed as one input to accounting for spare capacity on declared hardware. ([Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting](https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/proofs-of-useful-work/))

- Assessment: mechanism family.
- Readiness: R1 Proposed, assessed for bounding the spare capacity of declared hardware that could run training.
- Claims in this proposal: none of them.
- Threat model: adversarial prover. Hardware: none. Prover cooperation: required. Attack testing: analysis. Category: Cryptographic & computational.
- What the verifier sees: model weights depends; inputs and outputs depends; training data not involved. Checking a sampled tile of a matrix multiplication reveals that tile, which may hold model or input data; the authors suggest a zero-knowledge proof when the matrices must stay private.

### 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.


## Properties

**Built for an adversarial prover**

- Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets)
- Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting
- Bounding unexplained information in outputs

**No new hardware needed**

- Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting


## 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**

- Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting: Analysis
- Bounding unexplained information in outputs: Independent red-team


## 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, 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.
- Proves that work was done, not that no capacity remains (theoretical argument, in Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting; https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/proofs-of-useful-work/#flaw-1) [7]. Proof-of-work accounting bounds unmonitored compute only relative to an estimate of what the actor has. Attestable states that the verifier "needs a credible estimate of the compute available" to the actor, and that a proof "cannot discover a datacenter that was never declared".

  Related mechanism: Chip registries and manufacturing records (R1, not in the proposal). A registry of chips is one basis for the estimate of available compute that the flaw's source says the verifier needs.

  Related mechanism: Remote detection of data centres (R1, not in the proposal). Looks for data centres that were never declared, which a proof cannot discover.
- Security rests on new hardness assumptions (open question, in Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting; https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/proofs-of-useful-work/#flaw-2) [9][10]. Komargodski and Weinstein base security on hardness assumptions about batches of low-rank random linear equations, and list PoUW "from more standard or well-studied assumptions" as an open problem. Pearl's floating-point variant introduces a further "quantized-subspace hardness" assumption.
- Known shortcuts let a miner claim somewhat more work than it did (theoretical argument, in Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting; https://trustbutveri.fyi/mechanisms/proofs-of-useful-work/#flaw-3) [10]. Pearl's specification lists known mining speedups: crafted inputs, precision shortcuts, seed grinding, work reuse, and faster kernels or hardware. A policy check caps the summands a miner may skip at one-sixteenth of those in a tile. For capacity bounding, any gap between work proven and work possible leaves spare capacity.
- 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) [13][14]. 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) [12][15]. 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) [13][16]. 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) [12]. The compute-verification architecture is described with protocol details, potential attacks and prototyping plans, but no prototype results have been published.

**Not yet demonstrated**

- Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets): R1 Proposed, assessed for recomputing whole workloads to show a cluster runs only declared inference
- Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting: R1 Proposed, assessed for bounding the spare capacity of declared hardware that could run training


## 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.
  - Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets) waits on it: Workloads are not reproducible by default, and achieving reproducibility may cost performance.
  - 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.
- **Chip registries and manufacturing records** (R1 Proposed, assessed for a checkable record of which chips were made and who declared owning them)
  - Bears on the open significant flaw "Proves that work was done, not that no capacity remains" in Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting. A registry of chips is one basis for the estimate of available compute that the flaw's source says the verifier needs.
- **Remote detection of data centres** (R1 Proposed, assessed for finding undeclared data centres above an agreed compute threshold)
  - Bears on the open significant flaw "Proves that work was done, not that no capacity remains" in Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting. Looks for data centres that were never declared, which a proof cannot discover.
- **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.
- **Network taps and certifiers** (R1 Proposed, assessed for committing a complete record of cluster traffic, so declared inference can be checked)
  - Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets) waits on it: All traffic must reach the recomputation server via network taps, and the server's integrity is critical.
  - Bounding unexplained information in outputs depends on it.
- **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.


## 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)
- Network taps and certifiers (R1 Proposed, assessed for committing a complete record of cluster traffic, so declared inference can be checked), needed by Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets) and Bounding unexplained information in outputs
- 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

**Shared foundations**

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

**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]
- Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting: Bounding spare capacity needs a credible estimate of the compute available to the actor, including third-party access. (capacity bounds) [7]
- Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting: Proofs of work cannot find facilities that were never declared. (coverage & hidden compute) [7]
- Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting: As of September 2026 no implementation, demonstration or independent evaluation of proofs of work for capacity bounding has been published. (adversarial validation)
- 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) [12]
- 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) [13][16]
- 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) [14][16]
- 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) [12]
- Bounding unexplained information in outputs: No prototype of the facility-level architecture exists to red-team. (adversarial validation) [12]


## What the verifier sees

- Model weights: shown by none; depends on the design for Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets), Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting and 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 Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets), Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting and 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 Whole-workload recomputation (reproducible packets); hidden by none; not involved in Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting and Bounding unexplained information in outputs; 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)
- Proofs of useful work for capacity accounting: [Pearl proof-of-useful-work blockchain](https://trustbutveri.fyi/implementations/pearl-proof-of-useful-work/) (R3, open-source project)
- Bounding unexplained information in outputs: none on the map

## 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. Pacing AI Requires Proof, Attestable (2026). https://attestable.com/blog/pacing-ai-requires-proof
8. Mechanisms to Verify International Agreements About AI Development, A. Scher & L. Thiergart (2025). https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.15867
9. Proofs of Useful Work from Arbitrary Matrix Multiplication, I. Komargodski & O. Weinstein (2025). https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.09971
10. Pearl Floating Point Scheme Specification, Pearl Research Team (2026). https://pearlresearch.ai/Pearl_Whitepaper.pdf
11. pearl: Monorepo for the Pearl network, Pearl Research Labs (2026). https://github.com/pearl-research-labs/pearl
12. Verifying AI Compute by Bounding Unexplained Information Exfiltration, J. Petrie & Y. Mühlhäuser (2026). https://openreview.net/forum?id=qtgG5HZSsk
13. Verifying LLM Inference to Detect Model Weight Exfiltration, R. Rinberg et al. (2025). https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.02620
14. Adversarial Entropy Inflation Against Gumbel-Based Inference Verification, N. Kezins (2026). https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.23375
15. Haiku to Opus in Just 10 bits: LLMs Unlock Large Compression Gains, R. Rinberg et al. (2026). https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.02343
16. 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