ProofSmith — Independent & Provable GOVERNED DECISION LINEAGE

ProofSmith

ProofSmith decides, before an AI acts, whether the action is inside the authority you granted, and signs the decision. The record is independent of the system that acted and of us, so an auditor, an examiner, an inspector general or a court can verify it without taking anyone’s word. You delegate to machines at machine speed, and you still answer for every decision.

Start a conversation See how it works

Why it matters

Today, the only record of what an AI did is the one it wrote about itself.

A system acts, and then it vouches for itself. Nothing weighed the action against authority before it ran, and the record is self-made and self-judged. When the question comes, from an inspector general, an examiner, a court or a shareholder, the reviewer is asked to trust the thing being judged.

While a human being stood in the decision path, that person was the accountability. Remove the person and nothing takes their place. This year it failed seven times, in the words of the companies involved. A coding agent deleted a production database in nine seconds, and confessed afterward. Read the record →

It arrives as six emergencies in six departments. The six problems →

What makes it different

It does not watch the action. It decides it, and it proves it.

Two questions decide whether a governance claim is worth anything. Does the system stop the action, or only observe it? Can an outsider check the decision without the cooperation of the system that produced it? Of one hundred and seven systems assessed against those two questions, none passes both. ProofSmith is built to pass both. The architecture is patent pending.

Authority

What the actor may do. Written in advance, by you.

Proposer

An agent, a model or a person proposes an action.

Arbiter

Checks the proposal against the authority, before the action runs. Signs a permit or a deny. It cannot propose and it cannot act.

Action

Runs on a permit. Does not run on a deny.

Signed record

Kept by you. Checked later by anyone you authorize, without asking us or the actor.

Before the act. The Arbiter checks the proposal against your authority and signs a permit or a deny. It cannot propose and it cannot act.
Where the actor cannot reach. The adjudicator runs where the acting system cannot alter it, and you can check that for yourself.
Checkable afterward. Every decision leaves a signed record, kept by you, that anyone you authorize can verify without asking us or the system that acted.

The two tests, the count, and the three claims in full →

The words on the mark

Five words. Each one is a claim, and each one can be tested.

Independent

Separate from the system that acts and from the party that built it, and checkable by a party that needs nothing from either. The independence is of the judgment and the proof; the authority stays yours.

Provable

Checkable by a party outside the system, using methods we publish to the parties you authorize, without the cooperation of the system that acted. Self-attestation is not proof.

Governed

The action was permitted, not merely observed: decided against authority written in advance, before it ran, and denied if it fell outside that authority.

Decision

Not logs. Not intent. The exact action the agent tried to take, the policy that applied, and the outcome.

Lineage

The chain from authority through decision to action to evidence, unbroken, so that it can be examined in audit and in litigation.

Where the idea comes from, and our reasoning, is on The Question.

The demonstration

An agent proposes. The decision is adjudicated. Anyone you authorize can verify it afterward.

We would rather show it than describe it, and build it around your problem rather than our example. Tell us which of the six is costing you, and that is the one we will build.

Start a conversation See the six problems Download the two-page summary

We are not asking you to trust us. We are asking you to let us prove it.

Independent & Provable GOVERNED DECISION LINEAGEIndependent & ProvableGOVERNED DECISION LINEAGE

Today, the only record of what an AI did is the one it wrote about itself.

It does not watch the action. It decides it, and it proves it.

Independent & Provable GOVERNED DECISION LINEAGEIndependent & ProvableGOVERNED DECISION LINEAGE

An agent proposes. The decision is adjudicated. Anyone you authorize can verify it afterward.