International Security Applications of Flexible Hardware-Enabled Guarantees

Abstract: As AI capabilities advance rapidly, flexible hardware-enabled guarantees (flexHEGs) offer opportunities to address international security challenges through comprehensive governance frameworks. This report examines how flexHEGs could enable internationally trustworthy AI governance by establishing standardized designs, robust ecosystem defenses, and clear operational parameters for AI-relevant chips. We analyze four critical international security applications: limiting proliferation to address malicious use, implementing safety norms to prevent loss of control, managing risks from military AI systems, and supporting strategic stability through balance-of-power mechanisms while respecting national sovereignty. The report explores both targeted deployments for specific high-risk facilities and comprehensive deployments covering all AI-relevant compute. We examine two primary governance models: verification-based agreements that enable transparent compliance monitoring, and ruleset-based agreements that automatically enforce international rules through cryptographically-signed updates. Through game-theoretic analysis, we demonstrate that comprehensive flexHEG agreements could remain stable under reasonable assumptions about state preferences and catastrophic risks. The report addresses critical implementation challenges including technical thresholds for AI-relevant chips, management of existing non-flexHEG hardware, and safeguards against abuse of governance power. While requiring significant international coordination, flexHEGs could provide a technical foundation for managing AI risks at the scale and speed necessary to address emerging threats to international security and stability.