Terms of Service

1.Parties, Acceptance, and Effective Date

These Terms of Service ("Agreement" or "Terms") constitute a legally binding contract between The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc., a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business at 131 Continental Dr, Suite 305, Newark, DE 19713 ("Company," "we," "us," or "our"), and any natural person, legal entity, or authorized representative thereof who accesses, registers with, or uses the TIP Protocol services, platform, or software (collectively, "you" or "User").

Your acceptance is manifested by any of the following acts, whichever occurs first: (a) clicking "I Agree" or any equivalent confirmation; (b) completing TIP-ID biometric registration; (c) accessing any API or node endpoint; (d) deploying or integrating any component of the TIP Protocol reference implementation; or (e) registering content on the TIP DAG network. Acceptance is irrevocable and binding upon you, your successors, assigns, and heirs.

If you accept on behalf of a legal entity, you represent that you have full authority to bind that entity. If you lack such authority, you must not accept these Terms or use the Services.

The Company reserves the right to modify these Terms upon thirty (30) days written notice to your registered email address or by prominent notice on theailab.org. Continued use after the modification effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

2.Definitions

The following capitalized terms have the meanings set forth below throughout this Agreement.

3.Protocol Architecture and Technical Framework

3.1 Three-Layer Protocol Structure

The TIP Protocol operates across three interdependent layers: (i) Layer 1, TIP-ID, providing verifiable human identity bound to a cryptographic public key; (ii) Layer 2, TIP-CONTENT, providing cryptographically immutable content provenance records; and (iii) Layer 3, TIP-TRUST, providing deterministic, publicly computable reputation scores from a User's complete DAG transaction history.

3.2 Biometric Verification Stack

TIP-ID issuance requires completion of a mandatory four-layer biometric verification stack: (a) government-issued identity document verification using OCR, NFC chip authentication, and AI-assisted tamper detection, supporting documents from 195 countries; (b) 3D facial liveness detection using depth mapping, involuntary micro-expression analysis, and sub-dermal blood flow measurement; (c) FIDO2/WebAuthn device binding to a hardware security enclave (Apple Secure Enclave, Android StrongBox, or Windows TPM 2.0), with the private key never exported from hardware; and (d) optionally, social graph attestation from three existing TIP-ID holders each with a Trust Score not below 700, each staking 25 trust points as surety.

3.3 Immutability and Permanence

3.4 Cryptographic Standards

All protocol-compliant implementations must use: ML-DSA-65 (FIPS 204, Dilithium3) for primary signatures; SLH-DSA-128s (FIPS 205, SPHINCS+) for root and genesis signatures; ML-KEM-768 (FIPS 203, Kyber) for key encapsulation; and SHAKE-256/SHA-3 (FIPS 202) for all hashing. Hybrid signatures (Ed25519 + ML-DSA-65) are provisionally permitted for a transition period not to exceed three years. The Company makes no warranty that Ed25519-only implementations are quantum-resistant.

4.User Eligibility and Account Registration

4.1 Minimum Age. You must be at least 18 years of age, or the age of legal majority in your jurisdiction if higher. The Company does not knowingly collect Biometric Data from minors.

4.2 One Identity Per Person. Each natural person may register one (1) active TIP-ID at any time. The peppered zero-knowledge deduplication system (FIX-02) enforces this cryptographically. Attempting to register multiple TIP-IDs is a material breach and may result in revocation of all associated TIP-IDs and permanent exclusion from the network.

4.3 Identity Accuracy. You represent and warrant that all registration information is accurate and complete, the identity document is genuine and unaltered, and you are the lawful sole controller of the credentials associated with your TIP-ID. Fraudulent registration is a material breach and may expose you to civil and criminal liability.

4.4 Device and Key Security. You bear sole responsibility for the security of your registered hardware device. You must immediately initiate a REVOKE_DEVICE transaction upon any compromise, loss, theft, or unauthorized access. The Company is not liable for harm resulting from your failure to promptly report a device compromise.

4.5 Non-Transferability. A TIP-ID issued to a natural person is non-transferable and may not be assigned to or operated on behalf of any legal entity.

5.Content Origin Declaration Obligations

5.1 Mandatory Honest Declaration

Every content registration requires a mandatory, cryptographically signed Origin Code. You must select the Origin Code that most accurately describes how the content was created: OH (Original Human) - created entirely by you without AI generation tools, with traditional non-generative tools (editing software, spell-check, color grading) permitted; AA (AI-Assisted) - you performed the primary creative work but used AI tools to enhance or partially generate portions; AG (AI-Generated) - AI performed the primary generation and your role was prompting, curating, or minor editing; MX (Mixed) - content combines human-created and AI-generated elements with no single dominant origin.

5.2 Conservative Declaration Is Always Safe

A declaration attributing greater AI involvement than is factually accurate carries no penalty and does not constitute a breach of these Terms. The adjudication system is designed exclusively to address under-disclosure of AI involvement. You may always safely label content at a higher AI involvement level than strictly required.

5.3 Pre-Scan and Flag-But-Mint

All OH-declared submissions are subject to an automated AI pre-scan classification prior to DAG registration. The calibrated threshold formula is: T_c = T_baseline + min(H / 200, 1.0) x (0.94 - T_baseline), where T_baseline ranges from 0.82 (conversational) to 0.93 (legal), H is the count of your OH content previously confirmed CLEARED by jury, and 0.94 is the hard ceiling encoded in the Genesis Block. If the AI probability exceeds T_c, content is registered with pending_review status. Registration is never blocked. You have 24 hours to update your Origin Code at zero penalty.

5.4 Adjudication Pipeline

Disputed content proceeds through three stages: Stage 1 (automated, under 60 seconds) - AI classifier produces a confidence score; above 0.90 auto-escalates, below 0.30 auto-dismisses, between 0.30 and 0.90 proceeds to Stage 2. Stage 2 (human jury, 24-72 hours) - seven TIP-ID holders each with Trust Score not below 700 vote on whether the declared origin matches the content; jurors stake points on their vote. Stage 3 (expert appeal, 3-7 days) - three domain experts conduct final review; Stage 3 decisions are immutable and not subject to further protocol-level appeal.

5.5 Trust Score Consequences

A CONFIRMED_MISMATCH finding triggers Trust Score deductions according to the following schedule:

6.Verification Provider Obligations and Accreditation

6.1 Accreditation Requirement

No entity may issue TIP-IDs, operate a VP Node, or represent itself as an accredited Verification Provider without prior written accreditation from the Company. Accreditation requires: (a) implementation of all four biometric verification layers; (b) an independent security audit from Trail of Bits, Bishop Fox, Cure53, or an equivalent firm approved by the Company; (c) execution of the TIP-VP Code of Conduct; (d) passage of a jurisdiction assessment; and (e) payment of applicable accreditation fees.

6.2 Jurisdiction Tier Classification

Each VP is assigned a jurisdiction tier based on mandatory government data access laws, data protection authority independence, MLAT treaty participation, and extrajudicial access history: GREEN - no mandatory data access laws requiring disclosure without a court order; AMBER - mandatory laws exist but are subject to judicial oversight; RED - mandatory laws with documented extrajudicial access history. TIP-ID holders must be disclosed their VP's current tier at registration and upon any subsequent change. AMBER tier is indicated by an amber indicator on the AI Trust ID visual badge.

6.3 Warrant Canary Obligations

Every VP must publish a quarterly signed warrant canary confirming no compelled, undisclosed government data access has occurred. Canaries must be signed with the VP's ML-DSA-65 signing key and machine-verifiable. Failure to publish within 90 days of the preceding publication generates a JURISDICTION_ADVISORY transaction. After 30 days without remediation, a JURISDICTION_WARNING is issued and the VP's tier is effectively downgraded with advisory notice sent to all affected TIP-ID holders.

6.4 Accreditation Fees

• Category C (Government entities): no fee
• Category B (Journalism/NGO entities): no fee
• Category A, under 10,000 verifications/month: USD $5,000/year
• Category A, 10,000-100,000 verifications/month: USD $15,000/year
• Category A, over 100,000 verifications/month: USD $40,000/year

6.5 VP Revocation of TIP-IDs

A VP may initiate REVOKE_VP with a signed cause statement and evidence hash. This zeros the affected User's Trust Score with an additional penalty, queues all content registered within the preceding 90 days for Stage 1 adjudication with dispute reason issuer_revocation_cascade, and updates content status to disputed. REVOKE_DECEASED freezes the Trust Score and preserves records with verified deceased author notation. REVOKE_DEVICE addresses device compromise only and does not affect Trust Score or content records.

7.Intellectual Property Rights

7.1 Protocol Specification (CC-BY 4.0)

The TIP Protocol v2.0 specification is published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. You may read, implement, teach from, and publish the specification without payment or permission, provided every use includes: "TIP Protocol Specification by Dinesh Mendhe, The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc. (theailab.org)."

7.2 Reference Implementation (TIPCL-1.0)

The reference implementation is licensed under TIPCL-1.0, effective January 1, 2026. TIPCL-1.0 is available at no charge to: individual persons under $100K annual revenue; small businesses under $100K annual revenue; nonprofits, NGOs, and charities of any size; accredited educational institutions of any size; government entities of any size; journalism organizations for editorial purposes regardless of size; and R&D/testing use up to 500 external users for a maximum of 12 months. All other commercial users at or above USD $100,000 annual gross revenue must obtain a Commercial License under one of the tiered schedules published at theailab.org/tip-license.

7.3 Commercial License Tiers

A 90-day grace period commences when your revenue first exceeds USD $100,000. Failure to obtain a Commercial License before the grace period expires voids the provisional license retroactively, exposing you to claims for unlicensed use and damages.

7.4 Mandatory Attribution

All users of the Reference Implementation must display in any user-facing interface: "Built on TIP Protocol by The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc. (theailab.org) | Licensed under TIPCL-1.0." This attribution obligation survives the 2031 conversion to Apache 2.0 through permanent NOTICE file preservation.

7.5 Trademarks

TIP™, AI Trust ID™, AI Trust Registry™, and The Global Seal of Trust™ are trademarks of The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc. All rights reserved. No trademark license is granted by these Terms or by TIPCL-1.0. A separate written trademark license is required for any use. Expressly prohibited without such license: use in product or company names; display of the AI Trust ID™ Seal without registry authorization; any use implying Company endorsement; and any modification or derivative of any TIP trademark.

7.6 Patent Pending Notice

The TIP Protocol incorporates inventions subject to two United States provisional patent applications filed in March 2026 under 35 U.S.C. § 111(b), covering claim groups A through J: biometric verification stack (A); origin declaration system (B); deterministic trust scoring (C); dual-badge system (D); HTTP header integration (E); peppered zero-knowledge deduplication (F); adaptive creator-calibrated AI pre-scan (G); multi-type identity revocation (H); GDPR-compliant score visibility control (I); and VP jurisdiction tier classification (J). The non-provisional deadline is March 12, 2027. No patent license is granted by these Terms.

7.7 AI Trust ID Seal - Registry-Issued Only

The AI Trust ID™ Seal in all colorways and sizes is a registry-issued credential that may only be generated and distributed by the Company's official registry or an entity with express written authorization. No User, developer, VP, or commercial licensee may self-generate or display any visual element reproducing, approximating, or likely to be confused with the AI Trust ID™ Seal.

8.Privacy, Biometric Data, and GDPR Compliance

8.1 Biometric Data Handling

By initiating registration, you provide express, informed, and freely given consent to the collection, processing, and storage of your Biometric Data. Key handling principles: raw biometric data is never stored in original form - only the SHAKE-256 cryptographic hash of a 512-dimensional facial embedding is retained; government identity documents are processed for verification and immediately deleted; the biometric hash is further protected by a peppered zero-knowledge deduplication system (FIX-02) preventing re-identification; and your private key is generated within and never leaves your device's hardware security enclave.

8.2 GDPR Compliance

For Users in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or Switzerland, the Company processes personal data under GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679). Legal bases: contract performance (Art. 6(1)(b)) for TIP-ID issuance; legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) for fraud prevention; and explicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) for FULL_PUBLIC score display mode. The Company's Data Protection Officer may be contacted at dpo@theailab.org.

8.3 Trust Score Display and GDPR Article 22

The default Trust Score display mode is TIER_ONLY (pursuant to GDPR Art. 25 data minimization), showing only the tier label without the numeric score. Users may elect: FULL_PUBLIC (numeric score plus tier, requires explicit opt-in consent); TIER_ONLY (default, tier label only); or VERIFIED_ONLY (binary verified/unverified status). All display mode changes are recorded as signed UPDATE_DISPLAY_MODE transactions on the DAG. Zero-knowledge score threshold proofs are available for relying parties requiring minimum-score verification without disclosure of the numeric value.

8.4 Right to Erasure

Users may submit a GDPR Art. 17 erasure request to dpo@theailab.org. Upon verification, the Company will remove all personal data fields from API responses, write a HISTORY_ERASED transaction to the DAG, and delete off-chain personal data within 30 days. By the technical architecture of the DAG, transaction hashes, CTIDs, Trust Score values, and adjudication outcomes cannot be deleted from the ledger but will no longer be associated with your personal identity in API responses.

8.5 Data Transfers

Your personal data may be transferred to and processed in the United States and other countries. Such transfers are conducted under Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission. The Company does not sell or voluntarily share personal data with third parties for commercial purposes. Voluntary data sharing by any VP constitutes grounds for immediate revocation of accreditation.

9.Prohibited Conduct

You agree that you will not, and will not permit or facilitate any third party to:

1. Register more than one (1) active TIP-ID, whether in your own name, under an alias, through a nominee, or by any other means of circumventing the zero-knowledge deduplication system.
2. Submit fraudulent, altered, or misrepresenting identity documents or biometric data during the registration process.
3. Knowingly make a false Origin Code declaration with respect to any content registration.
4. Impersonate any other person, entity, or TIP-ID holder, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity.
5. Attempt to reverse-engineer, reconstruct, or derive the biometric data or private cryptographic keys of any TIP-ID holder from DAG information.
6. Submit, facilitate, or participate in a sybil attack, coordinated false attestation, or any scheme designed to artificially inflate any User's Trust Score.
7. Display, reproduce, or distribute the AI Trust ID™ Seal or any confusingly similar badge without registry authorization.
8. Use any TIP™ trademark or brand element without a separate trademark license agreement.
9. Deploy the Reference Implementation commercially at or above USD $100,000 annual gross revenue without a valid Commercial License under one of the tiered schedules published at theailab.org/tip-license.
10. Operate a VP Node or issue TIP-IDs without valid Company accreditation.
11. Attempt to alter, suppress, fork, or otherwise compromise the integrity of the DAG ledger, Genesis Block parameters, or any validated transaction.
12. Use the Services to register, promote, or distribute content that violates applicable law, infringes intellectual property rights, constitutes defamation or harassment, depicts minors in a sexual context, or constitutes incitement to violence.
13. Conduct denial-of-service attacks, credential stuffing, port scanning, or any form of automated abuse against any TIP Protocol node, API, or infrastructure.
14. Reverse-engineer, decompile, or disassemble any Service component except as expressly permitted by applicable law.
15. Remove, obscure, or alter any copyright notice, trademark notice, or attribution requirement from the Reference Implementation or any derivative work.
16. Circumvent, disable, or interfere with any security, authentication, or access control mechanism of the Services.

10.Disclaimer of Warranties

The Trust Score is a mathematical output of the DAG transaction history algorithm. It is not a certification of moral character, journalistic integrity, or professional competence. The Company makes no representation regarding the relationship between a Trust Score and actual trustworthiness in any context outside content origin declaration accuracy.

The AI pre-scan classifier is a probabilistic tool and is not warranted to achieve any particular accuracy rate. False positives and false negatives are inherent characteristics of statistical classification systems.

11.Limitation of Liability

The Company's total cumulative liability to you for all claims shall not exceed the greater of: (a) the total fees you actually paid to the Company in the twelve-month period immediately preceding the claim; or (b) one hundred United States dollars (USD $100.00).

These limitations do not apply to death or personal injury caused by the Company's gross negligence or willful misconduct, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law in your jurisdiction.

You acknowledge that the immutable nature of the DAG means certain harms, including permanent Trust Score reductions and persistent content provenance records, cannot be undone by the Company regardless of fault. This is an essential characteristic of the Services that you accept as a condition of use.

12.Indemnification

You shall defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Company, its officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, Verification Providers, and node operators from and against all claims, actions, damages, liabilities, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) your breach of any representation, warranty, or obligation in this Agreement; (b) any content you register on the TIP DAG, including claims of copyright infringement or defamation; (c) your violation of applicable law; (d) your fraudulent identity registration or impersonation; (e) your unauthorized use of any TIP trademark or the AI Trust ID™ Seal; or (f) your use of the Reference Implementation without a required Commercial License.

13.Term and Termination

This Agreement commences on the date of your acceptance and continues until terminated. The Company may suspend or terminate your access at any time for: material breach; conduct threatening DAG integrity or harm to other Users; fraudulent or unlawful conduct; failure to pay applicable Commercial License fees within 30 days of written demand; receipt of a valid legal order; or termination of the Services as a whole.

You may voluntarily terminate your account by initiating a REVOKE_VOLUNTARY transaction, which archives your Trust Score, preserves content records with authorship shown as "[Revoked]," permits re-registration with a fresh starting score of 500, and triggers deletion of off-chain personal data within 30 days.

Sections 3.3 (Immutability), 7 (Intellectual Property), 8 (Privacy), 10 (Disclaimers), 11 (Limitations), 12 (Indemnification), 14 (Dispute Resolution), and 15 (General Provisions) survive termination.

14.Dispute Resolution and Governing Law

14.1 Governing Law

This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States of America, without regard to conflict-of-law principles and without regard to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

14.2 Mandatory Arbitration

14.3 Class Action Waiver

ALL CLAIMS MUST BE BROUGHT IN YOUR INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY. THE ARBITRATOR MAY NOT CONSOLIDATE MORE THAN ONE PERSON'S CLAIMS AND MAY NOT PRESIDE OVER ANY CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. IF A CLAIM PROCEEDS IN COURT, EACH PARTY WAIVES ANY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL.

14.4 Equitable Relief

Either party may seek emergency injunctive or equitable relief from a court of competent jurisdiction in New Castle County, Delaware, to prevent actual or threatened violation of intellectual property rights, misappropriation of trade secrets, or irreparable harm pending an arbitration award.

15.General Provisions

15.1 Entire Agreement. This Agreement, together with TIPCL-1.0, any applicable Commercial License, and the Company's Privacy Policy at theailab.org, constitutes the entire agreement between the parties and supersedes all prior agreements regarding the subject matter hereof.

15.2 Severability. If any provision is held invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force, and the invalid provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid while preserving the parties' intent.

15.3 Waiver. No failure or delay in exercising any right constitutes a waiver thereof. No waiver is effective unless made in writing and signed by an authorized officer of the Company.

15.4 Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without prior written consent of the Company. The Company may assign to any affiliate, successor entity, or acquirer without your consent, provided the assignee assumes all obligations. Any purported assignment in violation of this Section is void.

15.5 Force Majeure. The Company is not liable for delay or failure resulting from acts of God, war, terrorism, pandemic, governmental action, telecommunications failure, cyberattack, or other events beyond its reasonable control.

15.6 Export Controls. The Services, including post-quantum cryptographic components, may be subject to U.S. Export Administration Regulations. You represent that you are not located in, under control of, or a national of any country subject to U.S. export embargo, and that you are not on any U.S. government restricted-party list.

15.7 Notices. Legal notices to the Company must be sent by certified mail to: The AI Lab Intelligence Unobscured, Inc., 131 Continental Dr, Suite 305, Newark, DE 19713, Attention: Legal, with a copy to chairman@theailab.org.