Observable but Incomprehensible: Delegation under Verification Capacity Constraints

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Artificial intelligence has made generating research artifacts nearly costless; verifying them remains expensive. This paper studies delegation when output is fully observable but the principal's comprehension is stochastic, capacity-constrained, and bounded by a knowledge map. Beyond the map, verification buys nothing: the principal retains formal authority yet must trust the agent or screen by origin. Volume shocks push markets across this abdication frontier; origin bans are second-best only when capacity binds or artifacts lie beyond local maps; diversifying generators without diversifying verification leaves the common blind core of error untouched; and shared verification capacity is overgrazed.