P114 — AIEP — Evidence Retraction and Propagation Registry

applicant: Neil Grassby inventor: Neil Grassby status: review — to file classification: Patent Application — Confidential priority: Claims priority from GB2519711.2 filed 20 November 2025

Field of the Invention

[0001] The present invention relates to evidence integrity management in governed reasoning substrates.

[0002] More particularly, the invention relates to a mechanism within an AIEP substrate for maintaining a RetractionRegistry of known invalidated evidence sources, checking admitted artefacts against the registry at admission time, applying a RetractionDiscountFactor to flagged artefacts, and propagating retroactive weight adjustments to artefacts already present in the Evidence Ledger when a new RetractionRegistry entry is published that matches previously admitted artefacts.

Background

[0003] Evidence artefacts admitted to an AIEP substrate may subsequently be invalidated by external authority — academic retractions recorded in databases such as Retraction Watch, regulatory withdrawals of approved guidance, court decisions invalidating expert evidence previously relied upon, or standards body deprecations of technical specifications.

[0004] Conventional evidence management systems apply retraction flags at admission time to newly submitted artefacts but do not propagate retraction effects retroactively to artefacts already present in the substrate. Consequently, a substrate may continue to weight a retracted artefact highly for extended periods after its invalidation becomes publicly known.

[0005] Additionally, no existing AIEP specification provides a mechanism for an external registry state change — a new retraction entry — to trigger automated weight adjustments across previously admitted substrate artefacts without requiring re-admission of those artefacts.

[0006] Existing systems do not provide: a versioned RetractionRegistry checked at artefact admission; retroactive RetractionPropagationRecord generation triggered by new registry entries matching previously admitted artefacts; or deterministic weight adjustment across all branches referencing a newly retraction-flagged artefact.

Summary of the Invention

[0007] A RetractionRegistry is maintained as a versioned append-only registry of known invalidated evidence sources. Each RetractionRegistryEntry comprises:

(a) RetractionId — unique registry identifier; (b) SourceIdentifiers — a set of identifiers by which the retracted source may be matched, including DOI, canonical URL, author-title hash, and ISSN/ISBN where applicable; (c) RetractionAuthority — the entity recording the retraction (e.g., publisher, regulatory body, court); (d) RetractionDate — ISO 8601 timestamp of invalidation; (e) RetractionClass — classification from a schema-defined set (academic_retraction, regulatory_withdrawal, legal_invalidation, standards_deprecation); and (f) RetractionRegistryEntryHash = H(CanonicalSerialise(SourceIdentifiers) ‖ RetractionAuthority ‖ RetractionDate ‖ RetractionClass ‖ RegistryVersionId).

[0008] At artefact admission, the corpus admission pipeline checks each admitted artefact’s source identifiers against the RetractionRegistry. Where a match is found, a RetractionFlag is set on the artefact and a RetractionDiscountFactor is applied to its BaseEvidenceWeight:

RetractedWeight = BaseEvidenceWeight × (1 - RetractionDiscountFactor)

A RetractionAdmissionRecord is appended to the Evidence Ledger binding the artefact hash and the matching RetractionRegistryEntryHash.

[0009] Upon publication of a new RetractionRegistryEntry, a RetractionPropagationOperation runs across the Evidence Ledger identifying all previously admitted artefacts whose source identifiers match the new entry. For each matching artefact, a RetractionPropagationRecord is appended to the Evidence Ledger comprising:

(a) AffectedArtefactHash; (b) NewRetractionRegistryEntryHash; (c) PriorEvidenceWeight; (d) AdjustedEvidenceWeight; (e) PropagationTimestamp; and (f) PropagationHash = H(AffectedArtefactHash ‖ NewRetractionRegistryEntryHash ‖ PriorEvidenceWeight ‖ AdjustedEvidenceWeight ‖ SchemaVersionId).

[0010] Weight adjustments from RetractionPropagationRecords are applied to all active branches referencing the affected artefacts. P94 monitor evaluations are re-run across affected branches following propagation to detect whether branch dominance states have changed.

[0011] RetractionRegistry updates are distributed to substrate nodes via a versioned registry update protocol. Each node verifies the registry entry integrity via RetractionRegistryEntryHash before applying propagation.

Claims

1. An evidence retraction and propagation system within an AIEP governed reasoning substrate, the system configured to: maintain a versioned append-only RetractionRegistry comprising RetractionRegistryEntries identified by source identifiers and RetractionRegistryEntryHash; check admitted evidence artefacts against the RetractionRegistry at admission time and apply a RetractionDiscountFactor to matching artefacts; upon publication of a new RetractionRegistryEntry, execute a RetractionPropagationOperation identifying all previously admitted artefacts matching the new entry; append RetractionPropagationRecords to the Evidence Ledger for each affected artefact; and apply adjusted weights to all active branches referencing affected artefacts.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein RetractionPropagationOperation runs deterministically across the Evidence Ledger using source identifier matching against the new RetractionRegistryEntryHash.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein PropagationHash is computed as a cryptographic hash over the affected artefact hash, registry entry hash, prior and adjusted evidence weights, and schema version identifier.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein P94 monitor evaluation is re-triggered for all branches affected by RetractionPropagationRecord weight adjustments.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein RetractionRegistry entries are immutable once published and new invalidations are recorded as new entries, preserving the complete retraction history.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein RetractionRegistry updates are verified by RetractionRegistryEntryHash before propagation is applied, preventing unverified registry modifications from affecting substrate weights.

7. A method for retroactive evidence retraction propagation in a governed reasoning substrate comprising: receiving a new RetractionRegistryEntry; identifying previously admitted artefacts matching the entry’s source identifiers; appending RetractionPropagationRecords to the Evidence Ledger; applying adjusted evidence weights across referencing branches; and re-triggering P94 monitor evaluation for affected branches.

8. A computing system comprising one or more processors and memory storing instructions which, when executed, perform the method of claim 7.

Drawings

FIG. 1 — Architecture diagram (see filed application for figures)

Figure 1 — Append-Only RetractionRegistry Structure

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│           RetractionRegistry              │
│  RetractionRegistryEntry:                 │
│    source_doi                             │
│    canonical_url                          │
│    author_title_hash                      │
│    retraction_date                        │
│    RetractionRegistryEntryHash            │
│  entries: immutable, append-only          │
│  new invalidations = new entries only     │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘

Figure 2 — At-Admission Registry Check

New Artefact Admission
     │
     ▼
Check RetractionRegistry by
(DOI, canonical_url, author_title_hash)
     │
     ├── NOT FOUND  ──► admit at full weight
     └── FOUND      ──► RetractionDiscountFactor applied
                        artefact admitted with adjusted weight

Figure 3 — RetractionPropagationOperation on New Registry Entry

New RetractionRegistryEntry published
RetractionRegistryEntryHash verified
     │
     ▼
RetractionPropagationOperation:
scan all admitted Evidence Ledger artefacts
for matching source identifiers
     │
     ▼ match found
RetractionPropagationRecord appended
to matching artefact's ledger entry
adjusted weights applied across referencing branches
P94 monitor re-triggered for affected branches

Figure 4 — Fail-Closed Verification Gate

New RetractionRegistryEntry arrives
     │
     ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│  Verify RetractionRegistry       │
│  EntryHash before propagation    │
└──────┬──────────────────────────┘
       │ VERIFIED        NOT VERIFIED
       ▼                 ▼
    PROPAGATE         REJECT propagation
    (apply weights)   unverified modification
                      blocked

Abstract

An evidence retraction and propagation system is disclosed for AIEP governed reasoning substrates. A versioned append-only RetractionRegistry maintains known invalidated evidence sources identified by DOI, canonical URL, author-title hash, and other source identifiers. At admission, each new artefact is checked against the registry and retraction-flagged artefacts receive a RetractionDiscountFactor applied to their evidence weight. Upon publication of a new RetractionRegistryEntry, a RetractionPropagationOperation identifies all previously admitted matching artefacts and appends RetractionPropagationRecords to the Evidence Ledger, applying adjusted weights across all referencing branches. P94 monitor evaluation is re-triggered for affected branches. Registry updates are verified by entry hash before propagation. The mechanism ensures that external invalidation events propagate retroactively through the substrate without requiring re-admission of affected artefacts.