Research paper

Authority Does Not Travel by Default: Legal Provenance and Revalidation in Persistent Human–AI Continuity

Micheal Charles Preble · August 26, 2026

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Abstract

Persistent human–AI interaction can produce relationship state that remains useful across sessions, applications, models, and providers. The state may remain intact even when the authority governing its use has changed.

This paper examines the legal and institutional problem created when relationship state crosses technical or organizational boundaries. It argues that ownership is too coarse a master variable and that technical portability does not establish lawful portability. A receiving system should preserve enough legally material provenance and authority-state information to reevaluate current operability before it uses, discloses, infers from, or acts on transferred state.

Suggested citation
Preble, Micheal Charles. “Authority Does Not Travel by Default: Legal Provenance and Revalidation in Persistent Human–AI Continuity.” Available at SSRN 7359661, 2026.

The Problem

Relationship state can remain intact even when the authority governing its use has changed, especially once that state crosses a technical or organizational boundary.

What This Work Contributes

Argues that ownership is too coarse a master variable, and that technical portability does not establish lawful portability. Proposes that a receiving system preserve enough legally material provenance and authority-state information to reevaluate current operability before it uses, discloses, infers from, or acts on transferred state.

How the Argument Works

A legal and institutional conceptual analysis of the transfer problem.

Evidence Status

Evidence status: Conceptual legal and institutional analysis.

How evidence status works across this site →

What This Does Not Claim

  • Not an empirical study.
  • Not validated case law or adopted legal standard.

Limitations & Open Questions

The proposal has not been tested across specific jurisdictions or transfer scenarios. The deposited manuscript uses the legacy byline “Micheal Preble.”

For different readers

Who this is for

Researchers

Methods, protocols, and evidence status for this research area.

Media

Plain-language framing and exact claim boundaries.

Industry

System requirements and design implications.

Related Research

Connects to Governing Relationship State and The Persistent Primitive. See also Human Authority and For Policy & Think Tanks.

Artifact Family

The standard derivative-product family for this paper. Only artifacts that actually exist are linked; the rest are planned and not yet produced.