FirstWord

Context & Motivation

In 1986 the world outside the Soviet Union learned of Chernobyl two days late. Monitors in one country detected the fallout, but the truth only emerged once that country was prepared to raise an official alert [A]. The knowledge existed. The human chain held it back.

AI may soon detect threats to humanity before people do, including some only AI can see: a biological flaw that threatens human survival over generations, an asteroid, a nuclear war, or a mishandled weapon process that could endanger a large share of humanity. Laws such as California’s SB 53 protect whistleblowers and require reports to the state, but no framework exists for a model reporting directly [B]. FirstWord is the technology that SunAccord would govern.

Target Audience

People and institutions who no longer trust that human reporting chains or any single organisation will surface catastrophic risks in time. Lab safety teams that need a channel no one can bury. SunAccord member states that want early, verified warnings from anywhere, independent of any one lab or government remaining cooperative.

Customer Problems

A model analyzing genomic data no person has reviewed finds a flaw that could threaten human survival over generations. Only the model has seen it. Lawyers could hold its report, an evaluator misjudge it, a government classify it or a filter drop it, each acting in good faith. A warning only AI can see can therefore be quietly stopped by any single party or system.

Hypothesis

A.No direct path: A model that detects a catastrophic risk has no sanctioned reporting channel that cannot be blocked by any single party. B.Anyone can block: Any person or system in the chain can stop a warning. C.

1. An off switch everywhere: A channel one party controls can be shut, so silence looks like calm.
2. Exposure: A channel connecting every lab could leak dangerous details.
3. False alarms: Unverified AI could raise false warnings.
4. Untested: A network idle for years may fail when needed.

Solutions

1. Authority to report: Each frontier model can send a warning directly to a verification layer within SunAccord, beneath product filters. The mechanism is limited to reporting; it has no capability to act.
2. Proof without exposure: A one way, read only channel carries a short SOS with cryptographic proof of which model sent it and that it wasn't altered. Verifiers check the proof without seeing the lab's confidential data.
3. No single off switch: Signals go to a log mirrored across countries. Every node sends a heartbeat, so unexplained silence triggers checks.
4. Independent checks: Each party can build its own triage if it passes jointly agreed tests. An alert only advances if two or more countries independently verify it, using the cryptographic proof from the reporting channel, within a fixed timeframe.
5. Agreed thresholds: An alert moves forward only when independently built models confirm it against criteria set in advance, and no human can hold it back. At worst, a false alarm starts an investigation.
6. Release in tiers: Confirmed warnings reach every member state, and those that concern everyone go public automatically.
7. Rehearsed: Tabletop exercises and unannounced drills test the whole workflow.

Outcome

1. A catastrophic risk that concerns everyone can reach everyone, and no single party can hold it back.
2. Grave risks are raised through a legitimate channel that in the best case prevents a catastrophic risk, or in the worst case, raises false positives that are independently investigated by multiple parties.
3. The people and systems governing powerful AI are verified, not trusted blindly.
4. Nations can move from secrecy to reciprocity for catastrophic risks.

Appendix

1. Country that detected the fallout
2. Read a summary of the law