arXiv Machine Learning

Computation, Condensation, and the Incompleteness Between Them: A Coupled Foundation of Intelligence

arXiv:2303. 04203v4 Announce Type: replace Abstract: The theory of computation was built to answer Turing's question: what is effectively calculable by an unbounded, immortal, disembodied agent following rules?

arXiv AI
Sep 24

Algorithmic Unverifiability of Safety for Fixed and Recursively Self-Improving Systems

The paper proves that algorithmic safety verification for Turing‑complete, self‑modifying systems—whether fixed or recursively self‑improving—is fundamentally limited. Statistically, no verifier can be sound, complete, and tractable across unbounded domains, all finite configurations, or succinctly described finite environments, due to Rice’s, Gödel’s, Trakhtenbrot’s, coNP, and PSPACE barriers. Dynamically, even a single self‑modification step can render safety properties undecidable, and no total supervisory algorithm can guarantee correctness for all such transformations, though a monitor that raises alarms on violations remains feasible. whyItMatters":"The results show that formal safety guarantees for recursive self‑improvement are unattainable, highlighting intrinsic verification barriers for advanced AI systems."

By Jose Pascual Gumbau Mezquita