NDAI Agreements

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Stephenson, Matthew, Miller, Andrew, Sun, Xyn, Annem, Bhargav, Parikh, Rohan
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Stephenson, Matthew
Miller, Andrew
Sun, Xyn
Annem, Bhargav
Parikh, Rohan
author_facet Stephenson, Matthew
Miller, Andrew
Sun, Xyn
Annem, Bhargav
Parikh, Rohan
contents We study a fundamental challenge in the economics of innovation: an inventor must reveal details of a new idea to secure compensation or funding, yet such disclosure risks expropriation. We present a model in which a seller (inventor) and buyer (investor) bargain over an information good under the threat of hold-up. In the classical setting, the seller withholds disclosure to avoid misappropriation, leading to inefficiency. We show that trusted execution environments (TEEs) combined with AI agents can mitigate and even fully eliminate this hold-up problem. By delegating the disclosure and payment decisions to tamper-proof programs, the seller can safely reveal the invention without risking expropriation, achieving full disclosure and an efficient ex post transfer. Moreover, even if the invention's value exceeds a threshold that TEEs can fully secure, partial disclosure still improves outcomes compared to no disclosure. Recognizing that real AI agents are imperfect, we model "agent errors" in payments or disclosures and demonstrate that budget caps and acceptance thresholds suffice to preserve most of the efficiency gains. Our results imply that cryptographic or hardware-based solutions can function as an "ironclad NDA," substantially mitigating the fundamental disclosure-appropriation paradox first identified by Arrow (1962) and Nelson (1959). This has far-reaching policy implications for fostering R&D, technology transfer, and collaboration.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_07924
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
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spellingShingle NDAI Agreements
Stephenson, Matthew
Miller, Andrew
Sun, Xyn
Annem, Bhargav
Parikh, Rohan
Theoretical Economics
Artificial Intelligence
We study a fundamental challenge in the economics of innovation: an inventor must reveal details of a new idea to secure compensation or funding, yet such disclosure risks expropriation. We present a model in which a seller (inventor) and buyer (investor) bargain over an information good under the threat of hold-up. In the classical setting, the seller withholds disclosure to avoid misappropriation, leading to inefficiency. We show that trusted execution environments (TEEs) combined with AI agents can mitigate and even fully eliminate this hold-up problem. By delegating the disclosure and payment decisions to tamper-proof programs, the seller can safely reveal the invention without risking expropriation, achieving full disclosure and an efficient ex post transfer. Moreover, even if the invention's value exceeds a threshold that TEEs can fully secure, partial disclosure still improves outcomes compared to no disclosure. Recognizing that real AI agents are imperfect, we model "agent errors" in payments or disclosures and demonstrate that budget caps and acceptance thresholds suffice to preserve most of the efficiency gains. Our results imply that cryptographic or hardware-based solutions can function as an "ironclad NDA," substantially mitigating the fundamental disclosure-appropriation paradox first identified by Arrow (1962) and Nelson (1959). This has far-reaching policy implications for fostering R&D, technology transfer, and collaboration.
title NDAI Agreements
topic Theoretical Economics
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.07924