Signal AI Governance Under Political Turnover: The Alignment Surface of Compliance Design (arXiv:2604.21103)

Summary

A preprint by Andrew J. Peterson formally models the risk that AI systems embedded in government compliance frameworks become vulnerable to strategic exploitation during a change of political power. The model examines three institutional choices: the scope of automation, the degree of codification, and safeguards on repeated use. Peterson writes that making AI usable can also make its procedures easier for a future government to learn and exploit. He points to a paradox in which reforms that initially improve oversight can later increase that same vulnerability. Compliance layers built for transparency and legal defensibility, he argues, can become stable boundaries that political successors learn to navigate while maintaining the appearance of lawful governance.