[2608.21356] AI with Authority, from Application to Silicon

Skip to main content

Search arXiv

Press Enter to search · Advanced search

-->

Computer Science > Software Engineering

arXiv:2608.21356 (cs)

[Submitted on 21 Aug 2026]

Title:AI with Authority, from Application to Silicon

Authors:Jason Hickey<br>View a PDF of the paper titled AI with Authority, from Application to Silicon, by Jason Hickey

View PDF<br>HTML (experimental)

Abstract:For sixty years, machine verification has been a major cost overhead, affordable only for exceptional artifacts. Here we report that generative AI inverts this relationship: at AI speed, machine verification is not only economical but essential to productivity --- it is the incorruptible referee that lets one person safely direct autonomous machine work at scale. In five weeks, one researcher on consumer AI subscriptions directed a small fleet of AI agents from application code, through a verified compiler and executive, to a RISC-V processor taped out on a community silicon shuttle; no proof passed through human review, and no RTL was written by a human. The working discipline --- the Salt method --- rests on a proof kernel no hallucinated proof can pass: mathematical claims travel between agents as kernel-checked artifacts, and human attention is reserved for statements, designs, and rulings. Verification is stated link by link, from the Lean 4 kernel to SAT-checked equivalence at the silicon boundary. We publish the complete accounting: theorem provenance, a pre-registered token meter, floor-bounded human time, and an error ledger whose catch numbering runs to #256 --- a monotone counter over the mathematics campaign's append-only flags ledger, maintained 2026-07-07 to 2026-07-20 (one number, #79, was never assigned; later catches are recorded un-numbered) --- against zero incorrect proofs reaching the record.

Comments:<br>17 pages, 6 figures

Subjects:

Software Engineering (cs.SE); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Hardware Architecture (cs.AR); Logic in Computer Science (cs.LO)

Cite as:<br>arXiv:2608.21356 [cs.SE]

(or<br>arXiv:2608.21356v1 [cs.SE] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.21356

Focus to learn more

arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

Submission history<br>From: Jason Hickey [view email]<br>[v1]<br>Fri, 21 Aug 2026 17:59:16 UTC (370 KB)

Full-text links:<br>Access Paper:

View a PDF of the paper titled AI with Authority, from Application to Silicon, by Jason Hickey<br>View PDF<br>HTML (experimental)<br>TeX Source

view license

Current browse context:

cs.SE

next >

new<br>recent<br>| 2026-08

Change to browse by:

cs<br>cs.AI<br>cs.AR<br>cs.LO

References & Citations

NASA ADS<br>Google Scholar

Semantic Scholar

export BibTeX citation<br>Loading...

BibTeX formatted citation

&times;

loading...

Data provided by:

Bookmark

Bibliographic Tools

Bibliographic and Citation Tools

Bibliographic Explorer Toggle

Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)

Connected Papers Toggle

Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)

Litmaps Toggle

Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)

scite.ai Toggle

scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?)

Code, Data, Media

Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article

alphaXiv Toggle

alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?)

Links to Code Toggle

CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?)

DagsHub Toggle

DagsHub (What is DagsHub?)

GotitPub Toggle

Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?)

Huggingface Toggle

Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?)

ScienceCast Toggle

ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?)

Demos

Demos

Replicate Toggle

Replicate (What is Replicate?)

Spaces Toggle

Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?)

Spaces Toggle

TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?)

Related Papers

Recommenders and Search Tools

Link to Influence Flower

Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?)

Core recommender toggle

CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)

Author

Venue

Institution

Topic

About arXivLabs

arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs .

Which authors of this paper are endorsers? |<br>Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)

Major funding support from