---
type: source
title: "Enabling External Scrutiny of AI with Privacy-Enhancing Technologies"
author: "Kendrea Beers, Helen Toner"
url: https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.05219
date: 2025-02-01
domain: ai-alignment
secondary_domains: []
format: paper
status: null-result
priority: high
tags: [evaluation-infrastructure, privacy-enhancing-technologies, OpenMined, external-scrutiny, Christchurch-Call, AISI, deployed]
processed_by: theseus
processed_date: 2026-03-19
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
extraction_notes: "LLM returned 1 claims, 1 rejected by validator"
---

## Content

Georgetown researchers (Helen Toner was Director of Strategy at CISA) describe technical infrastructure built by OpenMined that enables external scrutiny of AI systems without compromising IP or security using privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs).

**Two actual deployments (not just proposals):**
1. **Christchurch Call initiative** — examining social media recommendation algorithms
2. **UK AI Safety Institute** — evaluating frontier models

**Core tension addressed:** External scrutiny is essential for AI governance, but companies restrict access due to security and IP concerns. PET infrastructure provides a technical solution: independent researchers can examine AI systems without seeing proprietary weights, training data, or sensitive configurations.

**Policy recommendation:** Policymakers should focus on "empowering researchers on a legal level" — the technical infrastructure exists, the legal/regulatory framework to use it does not.

**Conclusion:** These approaches "deserve further exploration and support from the AI governance community."

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** This is the most concrete evidence that evaluation infrastructure can be DEPLOYED while respecting IP constraints. The Christchurch Call and AISI deployments are actual running systems, not proposals. The key insight is that the TECHNICAL barrier to independent evaluation (IP protection) is solvable with PETs — the remaining barrier is legal/regulatory authority to require or enable such access.

**What surprised me:** The Christchurch Call case is social media algorithms, not frontier AI — but the same PET infrastructure applies. This suggests the technical building blocks exist for frontier AI scrutiny; the missing piece is the legal empowerment to use them.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Evidence that labs are being required to submit to PET-based scrutiny. The deployments are with platforms that voluntarily participated (Christchurch Call is a voluntary initiative). The "legal empowerment" gap is exactly the missing piece.

**KB connections:**
- Directly relevant to the "missing correction mechanism" from Session 2026-03-18b — the technical solution for independent evaluation exists (PETs), but legal authority to mandate it does not
- [[voluntary safety pledges cannot survive competitive pressure]] — PET scrutiny also requires voluntary cooperation unless legally mandated; same structural problem
- [[government designation of safety-conscious AI labs as supply chain risks inverts the regulatory dynamic]] — the same government that could legally empower PET scrutiny is instead penalizing safety-focused labs

**Extraction hints:**
- Key claim: "Privacy-enhancing technologies can enable genuinely independent AI scrutiny without compromising IP, but legal authority to require such scrutiny does not currently exist for frontier AI"
- The technology-law gap is the actionable claim: technical infrastructure is ready; legal framework isn't
- The two actual deployments (Christchurch Call, AISI) are important evidence that PET-based scrutiny works in practice

**Context:** February 2025. Helen Toner is a prominent AI governance researcher (Georgetown, formerly CISA). OpenMined is a privacy-preserving ML organization. The fact that a senior governance researcher is writing "the technical infrastructure exists, we need legal empowerment" is a clear signal about where the bottleneck is.

## Curator Notes

PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[safe AI development requires building alignment mechanisms before scaling capability]] — the technical alignment mechanism (PET-based independent scrutiny) exists but lacks legal mandate to be deployed at scale

WHY ARCHIVED: Provides evidence that the technical barrier to independent AI evaluation is solvable. The key insight — technology ready, legal framework missing — precisely locates the bottleneck in evaluation infrastructure development.

EXTRACTION HINT: Focus on the technology-law gap: PET infrastructure works (two deployments), but legal authority to require frontier AI labs to submit to independent evaluation doesn't exist. This is the specific intervention point.


## Key Facts
- Helen Toner was Director of Strategy at CISA
- Helen Toner is at Georgetown
- The Christchurch Call is a voluntary initiative
- UK AI Safety Institute has conducted frontier model evaluations using PET infrastructure
- The paper was published February 2025
