---
title: "Liability and Pricing of Dual-Use AI · AI Fault Line"
url: https://aifaultline.com/research/p/title-d56211e7a9037887/
description: "AI Fault Line is a neutral, evidence-cited field guide to why experts looking at the same developments disagree about AI's effect on productivity, jobs, inequality, regulation and the pace of change."
---

[Research](https://aifaultline.com/research/)

# Liability and Pricing of Dual-Use AI

Joshua S. Gans · NBER Working Papers · September 2026

[Read original source](https://www.nber.org/papers/w35828)

Where this sits in the debate

- [Should governments act on AI now?](https://aifaultline.com/debate/regulation/)

Direction of the finding as read from the abstract by an AI model ([AI-written](https://aifaultline.com/about/)).

## Abstract

How much liability should AI providers bear when their services enable both attack and defence? Liability can improve welfare while increasing harm. Providers sell a common input to productive users, attackers and defenders. Within a defended contest, a higher common price reduces effort without

## About this publication

**Working paper.** A working paper — circulated for discussion before formal peer review, the standard first outlet in economics.

Published

2026

Citations

Not recorded for this source

Citation counts come from OpenAlex; none are recorded for this source — absence of a count is not absence of citations.

[Chart: published 2026]

Joshua Gans signed the wemustactnow.ai letter — part of why this paper is in the collection.

## More on this topic

Related by theme, not necessarily by method or conclusion.

- [Artificial Intelligence and Institutional Transformation across Regulatory Economic and Knowledge Systems](https://aifaultline.com/research/p/doi-10-64771-jsetms-2026-v03-i06-pp131-146/) Journal of Science Engineering Technology and Management Sciences · 2026

- [Governing the Ungovernable: Structural Contradictions, Institutional Limitations, and the Constraints of State Authority in AI Regulation in China and the United States](https://aifaultline.com/research/p/doi-10-30574-wjarr-2026-30-3-1617/) World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews · 2026

- [Governing the Ungoverned: A Framework for Responsible AI Deployment in Nigeria’s Informal Economy](https://aifaultline.com/research/p/doi-10-59256-ijrtmr-20260603031/) International Journal Of Recent Trends In Multidisciplinary Research · 2026

- [Digitalization, AI Adoption, and MSME Productivity: An Ibn Khaldunian Perspective](https://aifaultline.com/research/p/doi-10-22373-share-0060/) Share Jurnal Ekonomi dan Keuangan Islam · 2026

Overview assembled automatically from collected metadata.
[How this site is built](https://aifaultline.com/about/).