Computable Fairness: Boltzmann-Softmax Control for AI Resource Allocation
Organizations: Regional Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA; Department of Economics, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, 44610, Korea. · Department of Physics, UNIST, Ulsan, 44919, Korea.
Abstract
In large-scale AI systems, allocating scarce resources such as GPU compute time and bandwidth among multiple agents is a critical challenge. Conventional policies focus on efficiency metrics, potentially leading to dominance concentration that undermines system diversity and stability. We propose Computable Fair Division (CFD), a framework that reinterprets the Boltzmann-Softmax function not as a selection tool but as a probabilistic resource allocation mechanism, redefining the inverse temperature parameter as a computable control variable governing the efficiency-fairness balance. Static analysis reveals a Pareto frontier with a near-optimal Stability Corridor where total loss remains approximately constant across policy weights. In the dynamic setting, AHC++ (Adaptive Hard-Cap Controller++) updates in real time using the error between observed dominance and a policy-specified target as feedback. Simulations show that AHC++ suppresses extreme dominance concentration under exogenous shocks while tracking fairness targets without substantial throughput degradation. Scalability analysis confirms that a 100x increase in agents yields only approximately 5.5x increase in execution time. Code: https://github.com/entrofy-ai/computable-fairness
Fair Resource Allocation
Fair resource allocation studies how to distribute scarce goods, services, and computing capacity equitably while accounting for efficiency and constraints.
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