Contract monitoring: governing AI via separation of powers

Enric Boix-Adsera

We propose an AI safety framework that binds worker agents to contracts specifying their permitted actions. We show how these contracts can be enforced and specified by assigning distinct responsibilities to monitor agents and judges, and asymmetric computational resources to monitors and workers. Our framework allows us to empirically measure statistical safety guarantees. The framework applies to a wide range of settings, including code security and escape-the-box scenarios.