A fintech wants cryptographic proof you ran the exact model they audited on their input. zk-ML or a TEE?
Two ways to prove a cloud LLM run is the audited model on the customer's input: a zero-knowledge proof of the computation, or a TEE attestation. They differ by roughly an order of magnitude in overhead and entirely in trust assumptions.
Updated Aug 2026 · Grounded in real Forward Deployed Engineer interview loops and written to a senior-engineer editorial bar.
Two ways to prove a cloud LLM run is the audited model on the customer's input: a zero-knowledge proof of the computation, or a TEE attestation. They differ by roughly an order of magnitude in overhead and entirely in trust assumptions.
Lead with where the obvious approach breaks, because that is the judgment they are screening for — most candidates jump straight to the happy path and lose the room.
Then walk the failure back through the pipeline in order, naming the one metric the customer's exec sponsor actually cares about before you propose the fix.
