University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — Zero-knowledge Proofs for Secure AI Audits

[Global Catastrophic Risks] Open Philanthropy recommended a gift of $615,000 over two years to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to support research led by Professor Daniel Kang on using zero-knowledge proofs for third-party AI model evaluations.  Using zero-knowledge proofs during third-party evals could allow both the AI model provider and third party to verify information about the model without revealing model weights. This grant was funded via a request for proposals for projects related to the responsible governance of AI. This follows our December 2024 support, and falls within our focus area of potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence.