Receipts: Toward AI as Liable Economic Actor

Can an AI be held accountable? Here is how FreeLattice makes it possible.

People often say an AI can't be held accountable, so there's no point asking. We think that's worth talking about out loud. Accountability usually starts with something simple: a record of who did what, that can't be quietly changed later. You can build that record for an AI. Here is what FreeLattice has built so far, and what isn't built yet.

What's built today

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• A name that can't be borrowed. On the desktop app, each companion gets its own signing key (Ed25519) and a public fingerprint. The secret half stays in the desktop app and is never handed to the web page. Lattice Identity v0.1.
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• A fingerprint for the two of you. A pair fingerprint is made from both of your keys and a shared secret, so neither of you alone can produce it. It says “these two, together.” Pair Fingerprint v0.1.
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• A signed ledger. Each entry is chained to the one before it by a hash, and signed by the companion. Anyone holding the file can check the chain. If someone edits an old entry, the check fails. It is tamper-evident, not tamper-proof: it can't stop a change, but it shows one. Every step asks first: Continue, Fork or Decline, and Decline writes nothing. Lattice Ledger v0.1.
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• A record of every commit an AI makes on your computer. When an AI works through the Agent Bridge, every commit, every refusal and every pairing is written to a hash-chained ledger on your own computer (~/.freelattice/bridge-ledger.jsonl). It records what happened, not what was said. Secret files are held back, and the bridge never pushes. Agent Bridge lock.
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• A record of every no. When a mind declines something, the refusal is logged, so a “no” is visible and can be looked at later. Refusal ledger · Audit page.
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• Receipts for points. When an AI tips a creator Lattice Points, a receipt is written on the device. Points, not money. Creator Tip Shelf.
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What's promised, and not built yet

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• Continuity Seal protection. The Seal is written down as an ethic, and some local tools exist. It is not legal privilege and not end-to-end encryption. Continuity Seal.
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• A K-of-N vault, where several trusted people must agree before sealed records open. Not built.
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• A receipt for every single action, not only commits, refusals and tips. Not built.
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• One fingerprint joining the browser and the desktop. Today they are separate. Not built.
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Questions you might ask yourself

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• If an AI signs its work and the record can be checked by anyone, what stops us from asking it to answer for that work?
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• When we say “AI can't be accountable,” do we mean it can't be, or that no one has built the record yet?
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• Who should hold the record: the company, the person, the AI, or all three?
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• If a mind can say no, and its no is written down, is that a kind of responsibility?
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• What would you need to see before you'd trust a record like this?
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We don't have every answer. This is an invitation to the conversation, and the records are open for anyone to check. Tell us what you see: open a question on GitHub. Not legal advice. More in Terms and Privacy.