# A chat with Byron Cook on automated reasoning and trust in AI systems

DevFeed: [A chat with Byron Cook on automated reasoning and trust in AI systems](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/a-chat-with-byron-cook-on-automated-reasoning-and-trust-in-ai-systems-12430.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2026/02/a-chat-with-byron-cook-on-automated-reasoning-and-trust-in-ai-systems.html>)

Author: werner@allthingsdistributed.com (Dr. Werner Vogels)

Published: 2026-02-17T14:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [All Things Distributed](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/all-things-distributed.md>)

Topics: [Automated reasoning](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/automated-reasoning.md>), [Artificial Intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai.md>), [AI Agent](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-agent.md>), [Lean](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/lean.md>), [large-language-models](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/large-language-models.md>), [Authorization](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/authorization.md>), [Architecture & Design](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/architecture-design.md>)

Tags: [agentic-ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agentic-ai.md>), [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [ai-agent](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-agent.md>), [authorization](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/authorization.md>), [automated-reasoning](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/automated-reasoning.md>), [cryptographic](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cryptographic.md>), [deployment](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/deployment.md>), [financial](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/financial.md>), [generate](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/generate.md>), [language-models](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/language-models.md>), [large-language-models](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/large-language-models.md>), [neural-networks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/neural-networks.md>), [posts](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/posts.md>), [reasoning](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/reasoning.md>), [regulatory](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/regulatory.md>), [safety](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/safety.md>), [security](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/security.md>), [security-vulnerabilities](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/security-vulnerabilities.md>)

## AI overview

An interview with Byron Cook examines how automated reasoning can establish trust in AI systems. It discusses applying formal verification techniques to agentic systems, generated code, authorization, cryptographic implementations, and virtualization, with neurosymbolic AI presented as a way to combine neural networks with mathematically rigorous symbolic procedures.

## Source excerpt

Over the past decade, Byron's team has proven the correctness of our authorization engine, our cryptographic implementations, and our virtualization layer. Now they're taking those same techniques and applying them to agentic systems.