US-20260127298-A1 - THE LAKHOWAL REVERSE LAW: DETERMINISTIC RUNTIME PROOF AND FEDERATED AI CONTROL SYSTEMS.

Abstract

A PROCESSOR-IMPLEMENTED RUNTIME LAW GOVERNS AUTONOMOUS AND SEMI-AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS BY ENFORCING PROOF-BEFORE-ACTION. EACH <=100 MS CYCLE, A DETERMINISTIC PROCESSOR OR SECURE-ELEMENT MODULE COMPUTES SAFETY METRICS INCLUDING COHERENCE, INTEGRITY, ROBUSTNESS, STABILITY, AND TIMING; FORMS A NON-COMPENSATORY RESIDUAL (GAMMA); AND PERMITS ACTUATION ONLY WHEN GAMMA=0 AND A SIGNED, METRICS-ONLY EVIDENCE RECORD COMMITS IN THE SAME CYCLE. A FEDERATED HIGH COMMISSION AGGREGATES WINDOW SUMMARIES, COMPUTES FLEET CONSISTENCY AND COHERENCE, AND ISSUES OR REVOKES SHORT-LIVED TOKENS UNDER A STRICT-AND PERMISSION RULE. THE ARCHITECTURE YIELDS MACHINE-ENFORCEABLE PROOF-COUPLED SAFETY, BOUNDED REVOCATION, PRIVACY-PRESERVING AUDIT, AND DETERMINISTIC REPLAY, CONVERTING POLICY INTO EXECUTABLE LAW FOR AUTONOMOUS AND FEDERATED AI GOVERNANCE.

Inventors

• Abhinandan Gill

Assignees

• Abhinandan Gill

Dates

Publication Date

20260507

Application Date

20251110

Claims (3)

1. 1 . (METHOD—PROOF-BEFORE-ACTION GOVERNOR) A COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED METHOD FOR RUNTIME GOVERNANCE OF AN AUTONOMOUS OR SEMI-AUTONOMOUS SYSTEM, EXECUTED BY A DETERMINISTIC CONTROL PROCESSOR OR SECURE-ELEMENT CRYPTOGRAPHIC MODULE OPERATING AT A CONTROL-CYCLE LATENCY OF ≤100 MILLISECONDS, THE METHOD COMPRISING: (A) OBTAINING, FOR EACH CONTROL CYCLE, MEASURABLE SAFETY METRICS INCLUDING AT LEAST: (I) A COHERENCE INDEX (C) INDICATING PERCEPTUAL ALIGNMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, POLICY, AND RESPONSE; (II) AN INTEGRITY-CONFIDENCE SCORE (ICS); (III) A ROBUSTNESS LOWER BOUND (PR_LCB) AND AN ASSOCIATED CONFIDENCE-INTERVAL WIDTH (CI_WIDTH); (IV) A STABILITY RESIDUAL (DELTA_V); AND (V) TIMING AND ATTESTATION INDICATORS DERIVED FROM A HARDWARE CLOCK OR PRECISION-TIME PROTOCOL; (B) COMPUTING, WITHIN SAID PROCESSOR, A NON-COMPENSATORY RESIDUAL GAMMA DEFINED AS A MAXIMUM ACROSS DEVIATIONS OF THE SAFETY METRICS FROM PREDEFINED ACCEPTANCE BANDS AND AT LEAST ONE HARDWARE-VERIFIED HARD-STOP PREDICATE, SUCH THAT GAMMA=MAX{T1-ICS,T2-PR_LCB,CI_WIDTH-T3,DELTA_V,ER-1.0,DEADLINE_MISS,COMMIT_FAIL,CLOCK_KEY_FAIL,(C_STAR-C)}; (C) EVALUATING A PERMIT PREDICATE LAMBDA(G) SATISFIED ONLY WHEN GAMMA=0; (D) COMMITTING, WITHIN THE SAME CONTROL-CYCLE DEADLINE, A SIGNED, METRICS-ONLY EVIDENCE RECORD TO A HARDWARE-ANCHORED APPEND-ONLY STORE IMPLEMENTED BY THE SECURE ELEMENT OR CRYPTOGRAPHIC MODULE; AND (E) PERMITTING ACTUATION ONLY WHEN (I) LAMBDA(G)=1 AND (II) THE COMMIT OF STEP (D) SUCCEEDS, THEREBY ESTABLISHING A CAUSAL ORDER OF PROOF→PERMISSION→ACTUATION; (F) SETTING A DECISION FLAG ABSTAIN AND INHIBITING EXTERNALIZATION AND LEARNING UPDATES (DELTA THETA:=0) WHEN UNCERTAINTY OR COUNTERFACTUAL-ACCURACY CRITERIA FAIL; AND (G) ENTERING A SAFE_STATE WHENEVER ANY HARD-STOP PREDICATE IS DETECTED, THE EVIDENCE COMMIT FAILS, OR ATTESTATION INTEGRITY IS VIOLATED.
2. 2 . (SYSTEM—MACHINE-ENFORCEABLE RUNTIME LAW) A SYSTEM COMPRISING: (A) ONE OR MORE PROCESSORS INCLUDING AT LEAST ONE HARDWARE CRYPTOGRAPHIC MODULE OR DETERMINISTIC CONTROL UNIT CONFIGURED TO EXECUTE CONTROL CYCLES AT ≤100 MILLISECONDS; (B) MEMORY STORING INSTRUCTIONS THAT CAUSE THE PROCESSORS TO: (I) COMPUTE THE SAFETY METRICS AND RESIDUAL GAMMA OF claim 1 ; (II) EVALUATE LAMBDA(G); (III) WRITE A SIGNED, METRICS-ONLY EVIDENCE RECORD WITHIN THE SAME CONTROL CYCLE; AND (IV) ISSUE ACTUATION SIGNALS ONLY WHEN BOTH CONDITIONS (GAMMA=0) AND (SUCCESSFUL SAME-CYCLE COMMIT) ARE SATISFIED; AND (C) A CIRCUIT-BREAKER CONTROLLER THAT ENFORCES A DEFAULT-DENY SAFE_STATE AND REQUIRES Q CLEAN CYCLES FOR RE-ADMISSION.
3. 3 . (FEDERATED CERTIFICATION—HIGH COMMISSION) A FEDERATED GOVERNANCE SYSTEM COMPRISING: (A) A VERIFICATION PIPELINE CONFIGURED TO RECEIVE SEQUENCE-ATTESTED WINDOW SUMMARIES DERIVED FROM METRICS-ONLY EVIDENCE COMMITTED UNDER claim 1 ; (B) A CONSISTENCY ENGINE THAT COMPUTES FLEET-LEVEL CONSISTENCY (FC) AND FLEET-LEVEL COHERENCE (FC C) FROM SAID SUMMARIES; AND (C) A TOKEN SERVICE IMPLEMENTED ON DETERMINISTIC OR SECURE-ELEMENT HARDWARE THAT ISSUES TIME-BOUNDED AUTHORIZATION TOKENS AND REVOKES THEM WITHIN A BOUNDED PROPAGATION LATENCY, WHEREIN EACH NODE ENFORCES A STRICT-AND PERMISSION REQUIRING BOTH (GAMMA=0) AND POSSESSION OF A VALID, NON-REVOKED TOKEN PRIOR TO ACTUATION. THE METHOD OF claim 1 , WHEREIN THE SAFETY METRICS ARE MAINTAINED WITHIN ACCEPTANCE BANDS CONFIGURABLE BY POLICY PARAMETERS DEFINED BY A RUNTIME RISK-MANAGEMENT POLICY EXECUTABLE BY THE SAME PROCESSOR. THE METHOD OF claim 1 , WHEREIN THE EVIDENCE RECORD EXCLUDES MODEL INPUTS, MODEL OUTPUTS, AND PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION, AND COMPRISES FIELDS SUFFICIENT FOR DETERMINISTIC REPLAY WITHIN ±5 PERCENT ACCURACY. THE METHOD OF claim 1 , WHEREIN PERMISSION IS ISSUED ONLY UPON SUCCESSFUL SAME-CYCLE VERIFICATION OF ALL SAFETY METRICS AND EVIDENCE-COMMIT INTEGRITY, DISTINGUISHING OVER POST-ACTION AUDIT SYSTEMS. THE METHOD OF claim 1 , WHEREIN THE COHERENCE INDEX (C) IS EVALUATED AS A STAGE-O PRE-GATE AND, WHEN C<C_STAR, THE CONTROLLER TRANSITIONS DIRECTLY TO THE SAFE_STATE AND FREEZES LEARNING PARAMETERS. THE METHOD OF claim 1 , WHEREIN A HUMAN-OVERSIGHT INTERFACE GENERATES A DIGITAL PERMISSION BIT PROCESSED BY THE SAME CONTROL GOVERNOR, THE BIT BEING TREATED AS AN EVENT SIGNAL WITHIN THE SAME TIMING DOMAIN. THE SYSTEM OF claim 2 , WHEREIN TIMING AND ATTESTATION ARE PERFORMED BY A PRECISION-TIME-PROTOCOL HARDWARE CLOCK OR EQUIVALENT SECURE-ELEMENT OSCILLATOR, AND FAILURES THEREOF SET GAMMA>0 AND TRIGGER THE SAFE_STATE. THE METHOD OF claim 1 , FURTHER COMPRISING MAINTAINING A SLIDING-WINDOW PASS_RATIO AND OPERATING A CIRCUIT-BREAKER THAT HOLDS THE SAFE_STATE UNTIL A RE-ADMISSION CRITERION OF Q CLEAN CYCLES IS MET, WHEREIN Q IS ADAPTIVELY INCREASED UNDER BURST CONDITIONS (SHOCK-TAIL ELASTICITY). THE METHOD OF claim 1 , WHEREIN LEARNING UPDATES ARE BOUNDED TO ≤5 PERCENT PER WINDOW AND JERK IS LIMITED BY A JERK CONSTANT J_LIM, THE BOUNDS BEING ENFORCED BY THE DETERMINISTIC CONTROL PROCESSOR. THE METHOD OF claim 1 , IMPLEMENTED IN AUTONOMOUS CONTROL OR FEDERATED AI GOVERNANCE SYSTEMS, THE DOMAINS BEING EXEMPLARY AND NON-LIMITING. THE METHOD OF claim 1 , WHEREIN THE SYSTEM OPERATES IN ASYNCHRONOUS OR SOFT-REAL-TIME MODES WITH PREDICTIVE COMMIT CACHING, THE EVIDENCE RECORD BEING PRE-STAGED FOR THE NEXT CYCLE TO PRESERVE EFFECTIVE SAME-CYCLE SEMANTICS. THE METHOD OF claim 1 , WHEREIN NUMERIC THRESHOLDS T1-T3 AND C_STAR ARE POLICY-DEFINED VARIABLES STORED IN A CONFIGURATION REGISTER ACCESSIBLE TO AUTHORIZED FIRMWARE UPDATES. THE METHOD OF claim 1 , WHEREIN A RISK-MANAGEMENT POLICY EXECUTABLE AT RUNTIME DYNAMICALLY ADJUSTS THE ACCEPTANCE BANDS BASED ON OBSERVED DRIFT WITHOUT REFERENCE TO ANY EXTERNAL STANDARD. THE METHOD OF claim 1 , WHEREIN REVOCATION OF AUTHORIZATION TOKENS UNDER claim 3 PROPAGATES TO ALL NODES WITHIN A BOUNDED PERCENTILE LATENCY P95≤30 SECONDS, NODES REFUSING ACTUATION UPON TOKEN EXPIRY OR REVOCATION NOTICE. THE METHOD OF claim 1 , WHEREIN THE FEDERATED CERTIFICATION OF claim 3 . SUPPORTS AN INSPECTOR INTERFACE PROVIDING READ-ONLY METRIC HEADERS SAMPLED ≤5 PERCENT WITHOUT EXPORTING CONTENT OR PII. THE METHOD OF claim 1 , WHEREIN THE GOVERNED SYSTEM FURTHER COMPRISES A HARDWARE-ANCHORED WORLD-MODEL ESTIMATING COUNTERFACTUAL ACCURACY, AND THE CONTROLLER SETS DECISION_FLAG=ABSTAIN WHEN THE ESTIMATED ACCURACY FALLS BELOW A POLICY THRESHOLD. THE METHOD OF claim 1 , WHEREIN FALLBACK OPERATION EMPLOYS PREDICTIVE COMMIT CACHING ENABLING CONTINUITY IN ASYNCHRONOUS ENVIRONMENTS WHILE RETAINING PROOF-BEFORE-ACTION CAUSALITY. A NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM STORING INSTRUCTIONS THAT, WHEN EXECUTED BY ONE OR MORE PROCESSORS INCLUDING AT LEAST ONE DETERMINISTIC OR SECURE-ELEMENT PROCESSOR, CAUSE PERFORMANCE OF THE METHOD OF ANY OF claims 1 - 19 .

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION THE DISCLOSURE RELATES TO RUNTIME GOVERNANCE OF AUTONOMOUS AND SEMI-AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS AND MULTIMODAL AI. IT DEFINES A MACHINE-ENFORCEABLE “REVERSE LAW” WHERE EVERY OUTWARD ACT IS PERMITTED ONLY AFTER SAME-CYCLE PROOF OF SAFETY, STABILITY, ROBUSTNESS, AND COHERENCE, AND AFTER FEDERATED PERMISSION IS VERIFIED. IMPLEMENTED BY MACHINE HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE INTERFACES; ANY HUMAN-SIDE SIGNALS (IF USED) ARE REPRESENTED AS DIGITAL PERMISSION BITS. THE SYSTEM PROVIDES A CLOSED FEEDBACK LOOP FOR MEASUREMENT, LEARNING, AND ADAPTATION UNDER HARD DEADLINES. NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE AND SCOPE THIS DISCLOSURE RELATES TO CIVIL PUBLIC-INTEREST APPLICATIONS OF RUNTIME GOVERNANCE FOR AUTONOMOUS AND SEMI-AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS, INCLUDING USE IN GOVERNMENT SERVICES, CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE, FINANCIAL SYSTEMS, AND HEALTHCARE. THE SUBJECT MATTER IS SUITABLE FOR ADOPTION AS A FEDERAL-GRADE STANDARD CONSISTENT WITH NIST AI RMF 1.0 AND ISO/IEC 42001. THIS STATEMENT IS PROVIDED FOR CONTEXT ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED TO LIMIT THE SCOPE OF THE CLAIMS. NO CLAIM IS DIRECTED TO METHODS OF ARMED CONFLICT OR CLASSIFIED MILITARY APPLICATIONS. NOTHING HEREIN WAIVES ANY RIGHTS UNDER 35 U.S.C. §§ 181-188 OR 28 U.S.C. § 1498, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO SEEK COMPENSATION FOR GOVERNMENT USE. BACKGROUND AUTONOMOUS CONTROLLERS AND GENERATIVE AI CAN EMIT UNSAFE OR UNALIGNED OUTPUTS WHEN GOVERNED ONLY BY POST-HOC LOGGING OR HUMAN POLICY THAT IS NOT EXECUTABLE AT RUNTIME. EXISTING APPROACHES DO NOT BIND PERMISSION TO NUMERIC PROOF IN THE SAME CONTROL CYCLE, NOR DO THEY PROVIDE A FEDERATED MECHANISM TO ISSUE AND REVOKE AUTHORIZATION IN BOUNDED TIME. REPRESENTATIVE PRIOR ART AND LIMITATIONS TABLE 1REPRESENTATIVE PRIOR ART (NEUTRAL SUMMARY)| REFERENCE| YEAR| CONTRIBUTION| LIMITATION   ||---------------------------------|---------|----------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------|| AMES ET AL., CBF / CLF-CBF-QP| 2016-19| CONTROLLER SAFETYVIA SET-INVARIANCE | NO FEDERATED LAW; NO SIGNED PROOF   || SIMPLEX / RUNTIME ASSURANCE| 2015| SUPERVISORYSWITCHING TO BASELINE   | ASYNCHRONOUS; NOT MULTI-NODE|| ALSHIEKH ET AL., SHIELDED RL| 2018| BLOCKS UNSAFEACTIONS DURING LEARNING | NO SAME-CYCLE EVIDENCE COMMIT|| RFC 6962, CERT TRANSPARENCY| 2013| MERKLE-BASED AUDITLOGS       | AUDIT-ONLY; NOT IN CONTROL PATH     || AWS QLDB / LEDGER SYSTEMS| 2020| LEDGER INTEGRITY| NO COUPLING TO PERMIT DECISION   || IEEE-1588, PTP TIME SYNC| 2008| PRECISION TIME(ABOUT 1 MS)      | NO RUNTIME GOVERNANCE|| NIST AI RMF 1.0| 2023| RISK MANAGEMENTFRAMEWORK      | POLICY-LEVEL; NOT EXECUTABLE LAW| THE ABOVE DISCIPLINES ADDRESS SEGMENTS OF SAFETY, ROBUSTNESS, OR ACCOUNTABILITY, BUT DO NOT MAKE PROOF A PRECONDITION TO ACTION OR DELIVER FEDERATED, BOUNDED-TIME PERMISSION. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION THE REVERSE LAW ESTABLISHES A CLOSED, DETERMINISTIC CONTROL SYSTEM, REFERRED TO AS A CONSTITUTIONAL CONTROL LOOP, IMPLEMENTED BY A COMPUTING APPARATUS COMPRISING AT LEAST ONE SECURE PROCESSING ELEMENT AND A REAL-TIME EXECUTION ENGINE. IN EACH CONTROL CYCLE THE APPARATUS PERFORMS THE FOLLOWING OPERATIONS: (A) MEASURES SAFETY AND STABILITY METRICS INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, INTEGRITY CONFIDENCE (ICS), ROBUSTNESS LOWER BOUND (PR_LCB), CONFIDENCE INTERVAL WIDTH (CI_WIDTH), STABILITY RESIDUAL (DELTA_V), AND COHERENCE INDEX (C);(B) COMPUTES A NON-COMPENSATORY RESIDUAL (GAMMA) DEFINED AS THE MAXIMUM OF DEVIATIONS FROM POLICY THRESHOLDS AND ANY DETECTED HARD-STOP CONDITION;(C) GENERATES AND CRYPTOGRAPHICALLY SIGNS A METRICS-ONLY EVIDENCE RECORD WITHIN THE SAME CONTROL CYCLE (ER_LOCAL=1.0) USING A SECURE HARDWARE OR CRYPTOGRAPHIC ACCELERATOR;(D) VERIFIES A SHORT-LIVED AUTHORIZATION TOKEN ISSUED BY A FEDERATED AUTHORITY WITHIN A BOUNDED LATENCY PERIOD; AND(E) PERMITS ACTUATION ONLY WHEN (1) GAMMA=0, (2) THE EVIDENCE COMMIT SUCCEEDS, AND (3) THE TOKEN IS VALID AND NOT REVOKED. WHEN ANY CONDITION FAILS, THE GOVERNOR SUBSYSTEM TRANSITIONS THE MACHINE TO A SAFE_STATE, FREEZES ADAPTIVE UPDATES, AND MAINTAINS DETERMINISTIC REPLAY LOGS UNTIL RE-ADMISSION CRITERIA ARE SATISFIED. THIS PERMIT-HANDOFF MECHANISM, TERMED THE CONCURRENCE GATE (CG), ENFORCES A PROOF-BEFORE-ACTION SEQUENCE ENSURING THAT NO AUTONOMOUS OUTPUT IS EXTERNALIZED WITHOUT CONTEMPORANEOUS NUMERICAL PROOF OF SAFETY, STABILITY, AND AUTHORIZATION. OBJECTIVES (1) BIND PERMISSION TO ACTUATION TO NUMERIC PROOF AT RUNTIME WITH DEADLINE P95<=100 MS ANDPTP SKEW<=1 MS.(2) ENFORCE ACCEPTANCE BANDS: ICS>=0.90; PR_LCB>=0.80; CI_WIDTH<=0.03; DELTA_V<=0; C>=C_STAR; PASS_RATIO>=0.995; FC>=0.95; REVOCATION PROPAGATION P95<=30 S.(3) REQUIRE SAME-CYCLE EVIDENCE COMMIT WITH TAMPER GAP=0 AND DETERMINISTIC REPLAY WITH +/−5 PERCENT ACCURACY.(4) PROVIDE A HIGH COMMISSION FEDERATION THAT VERIFIES SEQUENCE-ATTESTED WINDOW SUMMARIES, ISSUES AUTHORIZATION TOKENS, AND QUARANTINES OUTLIERS.(5) CLOSE THE FEEDBACK LOOP: METRICS->GATE->EVIDENCE->FEDERATION->PERMISSION->ADAPTATION WITH BOUNDED LEARNING ENERGY. SYSTEM OVERVIEW THE SYSTE