Researchers develop 'AI verification' tools to monitor US-China development

There are growing calls for Washington and Beijing to agree to slow down development of artificial intelligence. But even if they wanted to do so, how could they verify that the other side would do the same?

A group of researchers and start-ups is developing technology intended to make this a possibility, without relying on trust alone. Their proposed tools would allow third parties and governments to check some claims about how AI models are being trained or used – possibly without needing access to the AI models and infrastructure themselves.

This work is drawing attention ahead of Thursday’s meeting in Washington between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, at which AI is expected to be a topic of discussion. Still, advocates of the technology, known as “AI verification”, acknowledge that much work still needs to be done before the technology could be relied upon to monitor the vast computing facilities used to develop advanced AI.

Nonetheless, they argue that a recent surge in interest from both policymakers and industry is likely to rapidly accelerate progress in the field.