Alexander Neulinger

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are rapidly approaching capabilities that require an increasing level of human control. Existing AI alignment techniques remain opaque, model-specific, and vulnerable in human-level AI, or post-quantum scenarios. To address these issues, this paper proposes a novel AI alignment system architecture in which AI alignment rules are encoded as immutable smart contracts on a blockchain. The blockchain, in turn, is governed by a Proof of Personhood (PoP) consensus mechanism that only admits human agents to the rule validation processes. To protect the privacy of human agents in the identity verification process, the proposed AI alignment system facilitates techniques such as key derivation functions and asymmetric encryption of biometric data. In addition, this system also utilizes blockchain-based decentralized identity (DID) and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs). To ensure privacy in post-quantum scenarios, biometric data are linked to zk-STARKs. The proposed AI alignment system is formally described to capture human and AI agents, verification, authentication, and Sybil resistance. The AI shield, a reactive system that prevents unsafe actions by an AI agent that would violate predetermined conditions, enforces the blockchain-based AI alignment rules in real-time, independently of the underlying AI model. Thus, the contribution of this paper is a conceptual framework for the implementation of blockchain technology that utilizes a PoP-based consensus mechanism and zk-STARKs to foster privacy-friendly societal involvement and public auditability of AI developments, providing a democratically governed AI alignment layer applicable to current and future AI models, including those in a post-quantum era.

Artificial intelligence (AI) agents are increasingly shaping vital sectors of society, including healthcare, education, supply chains, and finance. As their influence grows, AI alignment research plays a pivotal role in ensuring these systems are trustworthy, transparent, and aligned with human values. Leveraging blockchain technology, proven over the past decade in enabling transparent, tamper-resistant distributed systems, offers significant potential to strengthen AI alignment. However, despite its potential, the current AI alignment literature has yet to systematically explore the effectiveness of blockchain in facilitating secure and ethical behavior in AI agents. While existing systematic literature reviews (SLRs) in AI alignment address various aspects of AI safety and AI alignment, this SLR specifically examines the gap at the intersection of AI alignment, blockchain, and ethics. To address this gap, this SLR explores how blockchain technology can overcome the limitations of existing AI alignment approaches. We searched for studies containing keywords from AI, blockchain, and ethics domains in the Scopus database, identifying 7110 initial records on 28 May 2024. We excluded studies which did not answer our research questions and did not discuss the thematic intersection between AI, blockchain, and ethics to a sufficient extent. The quality of the selected studies was assessed on the basis of their methodology, clarity, completeness, and transparency, resulting in a final number of 46 included studies, the majority of which were journal articles. Results were synthesized through quantitative topic analysis and qualitative analysis to identify key themes and patterns. The contributions of this paper include the following: (i) presentation of the results of an SLR conducted to identify, extract, evaluate, and synthesize studies on the symbiosis of AI alignment, blockchain, and ethics; (ii) summary and categorization of the existing benefits and challenges in incorporating blockchain for AI alignment within the context of ethics; (iii) development of a framework that will facilitate new research activities; and (iv) establishment of the state of evidence with in-depth assessment. The proposed blockchain-based AI alignment framework in this study demonstrates that integrating blockchain with AI alignment can substantially enhance robustness, promote public trust, and facilitate ethical compliance in AI systems.