Economist Proposes Time-Limited "Learning Rights" as Alternative to Nadella's Trust Boundaries
carlbfrey · x · 2026-09-16
Economist Carl Benedikt Frey writes in Project Syndicate, responding to Microsoft CEO Nadella's "trust boundaries" proposal of keeping what AI learns inside secure corporate perimeters.
The problem: firms and individuals improve AI systems just by using them, yet have little control over or ability to capture that learning's value. After an OpenAI system produced a solution to the Navier–Stokes problem, mathematician Tristan Buckmaster worried work he did while using OpenAI products might have contributed.
Downside of Nadella's approach: enclosing knowledge inside incumbents risks strengthening cloud providers and firms with large proprietary data assets, to the detriment of start-ups.
The alternative: property rather than secrecy — narrow, time-limited "learning rights" giving firms a right to compensation when others train on valuable knowledge they generated, without a permanent right to block its use. Knowledge circulates while creators get paid.
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