Current SNARK provers are many orders of magnitude slower than the underlying computation—certainly you can prove that you took sufficient time to do the computation (e.g. using a VDF) or did it in few enough steps or according to some policy (e.g. using NARKS) but what is the point of using a modern GPU in the first place if you’re going to be limited to speeds easily achievable by a 1990′s CPU?
The only way this scheme becomes more useful than just banning GPU usage outright is if the proof of policy compliance can be generated only slightly slower than actually doing the computation. We don’t have primitives that can do that currently.
I agree that the current state of the art does indeed very much limit the throughput of the models. However, considering the current effort in scaling the space and the amount of funding it has been receiving, I would hope that in 5-10 year time this would be a more negligible slow down. After all, it has been shown that several SNARKs and STARKs can achieve linear prover time, so right now it is all about fighting the constants and getting the schemes ever more efficient. And, considering how usually slow the governments are even with urgent matters, 5-10 year period should be just right for that. For the temporary solution we could reserve to SGX and other TEE providers if we have to, and trust that the patching they constantly release would work for now.
After all, this is better than nothing, and having some, even potentially not 100% effective solutions would be good for our cause. As long as we can gradually improve their security in parallel to growing concern over the AI threat.
Current SNARK provers are many orders of magnitude slower than the underlying computation—certainly you can prove that you took sufficient time to do the computation (e.g. using a VDF) or did it in few enough steps or according to some policy (e.g. using NARKS) but what is the point of using a modern GPU in the first place if you’re going to be limited to speeds easily achievable by a 1990′s CPU?
The only way this scheme becomes more useful than just banning GPU usage outright is if the proof of policy compliance can be generated only slightly slower than actually doing the computation. We don’t have primitives that can do that currently.
I agree that the current state of the art does indeed very much limit the throughput of the models. However, considering the current effort in scaling the space and the amount of funding it has been receiving, I would hope that in 5-10 year time this would be a more negligible slow down. After all, it has been shown that several SNARKs and STARKs can achieve linear prover time, so right now it is all about fighting the constants and getting the schemes ever more efficient. And, considering how usually slow the governments are even with urgent matters, 5-10 year period should be just right for that. For the temporary solution we could reserve to SGX and other TEE providers if we have to, and trust that the patching they constantly release would work for now.
After all, this is better than nothing, and having some, even potentially not 100% effective solutions would be good for our cause. As long as we can gradually improve their security in parallel to growing concern over the AI threat.