Carl Frey Calls for 'Learning Rights' Legislation to Decide Who Owns What AI Learns
carlbfrey · x · 2026-11-03
Oxford economist Carl Benedikt Frey argues in Project Syndicate that frontier models have exhausted readily available public knowledge, leaving organizations' tacit knowledge as the next valuable resource.
- He invokes Kenneth Arrow's 1962 information paradox: information can't be valued until disclosed, yet once disclosed the buyer gets it free—hence patents.
- Like mineral and broadcasting rights, "learning rights" should be created by statute: whenever a newly valuable resource emerges, ownership must be established before a market can form.
- Whoever sets the terms of extracting and transferring tacit knowledge will set the terms of the next economy.
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