Implementing Computational Law in Wolfram Language for the Governance of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract:How do we govern AI systems whose reasoning we cannot fully inspect? Governance does not require understanding a system's reasoning. It requires stating what the system is obliged, permitted, and forbidden to do, and checking whether it complied. I present an implementation of Reified Input/Output Logic, the formalism behind the DAPRECO knowledge base, in Wolfram Language: the core I/O axioms, obligations, permissions, constitutive norms, reified eventualities, and temporal operators. I then test whether GPT-4 can translate English legal statements into the formalism, and report the failures: hallucinated functions, omitted temporal scope, deviation from the formalism, and (in the worst cases) code that runs, reads plausibly, but silently encodes the wrong norm. A case study, an AI guard dog operating under a computational contract, shows how formalized rules can extend from a contract directly into the operational code of an embodied agent, producing symbolic, auditable justifications for its behaviour. I argue that computational law can be used as a governance tool and that a desirable goal would be to formalize the law that can and ought to be programmatically executable.

25 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables, 12 code listings. Wolfram Language implementation and verification script (31 assertions) available at this https URL

Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Computers and Society (cs.CY); Logic in Computer Science (cs.LO)

I.2.4; F.4.1; K.4.1

arXiv:2608.13958 [cs.AI]

(or arXiv:2608.13958v1 [cs.AI] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.13958 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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.