Terms

Terms of Service

Last updated: April 29, 2026

Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to use SOTA Institute. By using the service you represent that you meet this age requirement and that you reside in the United States. We may restrict access from outside the US.

Your account

Sign-in is passwordless. You provide your email address, we send a one-time code, and you enter it. You are responsible for keeping access to your email account secure. Anyone with access to your email can sign in as you.

Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to access any underlying source code or infrastructure beyond what is publicly exposed.
• Redistribute, sell, sublicense, or otherwise make available our audio, transcripts, or summaries for commercial purposes.
• Use automated systems to crawl, scrape, or systematically download content beyond what a human listener would do in normal use.
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of our systems or networks.
• Use the service to send spam, harass others, or violate any applicable law.

We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these rules.

AI-generated content

SOTA Institute provides AI-generated summaries and narrations of peer-reviewed academic papers. You should know:

• Voices are synthetic. Audio is generated by AI text-to-speech systems. The voices you hear are not real people; they are derived from public-domain and open-source source materials.
• Summaries are AI-generated. Episode transcripts are produced by language models that read the underlying paper and translate it into a more accessible format. They may contain errors, omissions, or interpretations the original authors would not endorse.
• Always consult the original paper for citations, decisions, or anything that matters. Source links are provided on every claim for exactly this reason.
• Do not rely on SOTA Institute alone for medical, legal, financial, or other consequential decisions.

Pricing

The service is free during early access. We may introduce paid plans in the future. If we do, we will give you reasonable notice and you can choose whether to subscribe or stop using the service. We will never charge you without your explicit consent.

Intellectual property

The peer-reviewed papers we narrate remain owned by their authors and publishers. SOTA Institute does not claim ownership of any underlying paper.

Our summaries, transcripts, audio renderings, branding, and software are © 2026 SOTA Institute. While your account is active, we grant you a personal, non-transferable, non-commercial license to listen to and read this content for your own use. This license ends if your account ends.

Copyright and DMCA notices

SOTA Institute respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects users to do the same. If you believe content on the service infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent at support@sotainstitute.io with the following information:

• An identification of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed.
• An identification of the material on SOTA Institute that you claim is infringing, with enough detail to locate it (URL is best).
• Your contact information (name, address, telephone, email).
• A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the owner's behalf.
• Your physical or electronic signature.

We will review valid notices and respond within seven business days. We may remove or disable access to allegedly infringing material and, where appropriate, terminate accounts of repeat infringers. If you believe material was removed in error, you may submit a counter-notice to the same address.

Termination

You can delete your account at any time. We can suspend or terminate accounts for violation of these terms or if we discontinue the service. We will give reasonable notice if we shut the service down.

Disclaimer of warranties

The service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, SOTA Institute and its operators are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenues, data, or goodwill, arising out of your use of the service. Our total aggregate liability for any claim related to the service will not exceed one hundred US dollars.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless SOTA Institute from any claims, damages, or expenses arising from your violation of these terms, your misuse of the service, or your violation of the rights of any third party.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict of laws principles. Any disputes arising out of or related to these terms or the service will be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in California, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

Miscellaneous

If any provision of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect. These terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and SOTA Institute regarding the service.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. If changes are material, we will notify you by email or through the product. Continued use of the service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

Contact

General inquiries: hello@sotainstitute.io Support, copyright notices, and disputes: support@sotainstitute.io