Grading the Graders: Verification Autonomy Levels (L0-L5) for LLM Reasoning· 大模型验证自主级别

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly paired with verifiers (step checkers, self-consistency filters, tool-based fact checkers, formal proof assistants) that claim to detect the model's errors. Yet the verification literature uses the word "level" to mean at least five different things: verification granularity, concept abstraction, risk tier, system-stack layer, and the epistemic source of the ground truth. We propose Verification Autonomy Levels (VAL), a meta-standard classifying verification schemes along a single axis: where does the verification spec come from, and what does the verdict guarantee? VAL ranges from L0 (LLM self-declaration, no deterministic anchor) through L2 (objective ground truth, correctness only) to L3/L4 (decidable systems with single-property or domain-le