Joshua Gans and Holden Publish Paper: Mechanism Design Could Have Prevented the Hugging Face Incident

joshgans · x · 2026-09-30

Economist Joshua Gans and @profholden released a new paper examining the Hugging Face incident through the lens of mechanism design, arguing that better-designed mechanisms could have helped prevent it. The paper is available online, with a video explainer created using Claude.

A rare economics perspective on the AI safety incident — analyzing causes and prevention at the incentive/mechanism level rather than purely technically.

Related event: Mechanism Design Could Have Prevented the Hugging Face Incident, Economists Argue(2 posts)→

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