Cooperative UAV swarms for zero knowledge verification of edge generative AI using trust-aware multiagent learning

The high-level integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in edge computing systems has raised the question of the integrity and reliability of deploying Model-as-a-Service. Edge servers are not required to follow the so-called generative model to minimize computational cost, whereas users and service providers want validation mechanisms that do not compromise proprietary model information. To address this challenge, this study proposes a cooperative unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-swarm-enabled zero-knowledge verification framework for secure, privacy-preserving verification of edge-based generative artificial intelligence inference. The proposed framework involves edge servers producing an interactive cryptographic zero-knowledge proof to verify the execution of generative AI, and UAV swarms that fly freely to confirm verification operations, subject to mobility and energy constraints. The age of verification metric is proposed to trust verification information, jointly reflecting the unverified server reliability and verification freshness, and to provide dynamic priority to risky edge servers. To effectively plan the behaviour of a UAV swarm, a trust-based multi-agent reinforcement learning approach is developed that enables decentralized decision-making while training is centralized. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed framework significantly improves the state-of-the-art baseline schemes in verification timeliness, malicious server detection delay, energy efficiency, and scalability. The findings validate that integrating cooperative UAV swarms, trust-aware verification, and multi-agent learning is an efficient approach to providing reliable generative AI services in dynamic edge computing environments.