Agreed, and in part why I’m not very sold on this critique.
I was curious about who would be the firm’s opponent in this scenario, i.e. the actor trying to legally implement the Windfall Clause.
This is underdetermined by the concept of the WC itself, but is a very important design consideration.
The worst-case scenario for this failure mode is that some very large number of people are plaintiffs in their individual capacity. Coordinating to enforce would be hard for them, but class action mechanisms (of which I’m not an expert!) could probably help.
A better approach would be to have some identifiable small number (including one) of recipients. This is in fact what we suggest in the report (Appendix II). This helps that actor internalize the costs of seeking to enforce the WC.
I think we can improve on that too, as suggested in the report to some degree. For example, I strongly believe the WC should include fee-shifting provisions for exactly this reason, so that the AI developer would be on the hook for legal fees from those trying to enforce the WC. And a variety of standard covenants in debt arrangements—such as accounting, indemnification, and domicile requirements—could further reduce risk. I also think the gold standard is securitizing the WC payment instrument, which would probably make enforcement easier for a variety of reasons.
Agreed, and in part why I’m not very sold on this critique.
This is underdetermined by the concept of the WC itself, but is a very important design consideration.
The worst-case scenario for this failure mode is that some very large number of people are plaintiffs in their individual capacity. Coordinating to enforce would be hard for them, but class action mechanisms (of which I’m not an expert!) could probably help.
A better approach would be to have some identifiable small number (including one) of recipients. This is in fact what we suggest in the report (Appendix II). This helps that actor internalize the costs of seeking to enforce the WC.
I think we can improve on that too, as suggested in the report to some degree. For example, I strongly believe the WC should include fee-shifting provisions for exactly this reason, so that the AI developer would be on the hook for legal fees from those trying to enforce the WC. And a variety of standard covenants in debt arrangements—such as accounting, indemnification, and domicile requirements—could further reduce risk. I also think the gold standard is securitizing the WC payment instrument, which would probably make enforcement easier for a variety of reasons.