Naci Cankaya

Fieldbuilding for AI verification is beginning. A consensus for what to build, what key problems to solve, and who to get in on the problem is emerging. Last week, ~40 people in total, including independent researchers and representatives from various companies, think tanks, academic institutions and non-profit organisations met for multiple days to share ideas, identify challenges, and create actionable roadmaps for preparing verification mechanisms for future international AI agreements. The workshop was initiated by the Future of Life Institute and included the following participants * Yannik Mühlhäuser and James Petrie; Future of Life Institute * Quinn Dougherty; Forall R&D * Naci Cankaya; MATS Research * Gabriel Kulp; (attending in personal capacity) * Jonathan Happel, Jackson Dean; TamperSec * Benjamin Hodgkiss; (attending in a personal capacity) * Romeo Dean, AI Futures Project among many others. Why this needs to happen now The urgency and neglectedness of this challenge is underscored by recent comments by frontier AI company leadership and government representatives: Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic: “The only world in which I can see full restraint is one in which some truly reliable verification is possible.” Ding Xuexiang, Chinese Vice Premier, speaking about AI at Davos in January 2025: “If countries are left to descend into a disorderly competition, it would turn into a ‘gray rhino’ right in front of us.” (a visible but ignored risk with serious consequences.) “It is like driving a car on the expressway. The driver would not feel safe to step on the gas pedal if he is not sure the brake is functional.” JD Vance, Vice President of the United States of America:1 “Part of this arms race component is if we take a pause, does the People’s Republic of China not take a pause? And then we find ourselves all enslaved to P.R.C.-mediated A.I.?” Beyond international coordination, there are further use cases for verification of what AI compute is