I know this has been discussed, and the fear of making A.I. space accessible will diminish the value of A.I. items, but the new ALICE schematics use AI materials. I'm notating the Janus Manufacturing station, and a partial list of AI resources needed is AI - Processor (800), AI - Power Source (800), AI - Data Stick A1 (800), AI - Data Stick B1 (800), AI - Data Store R07 (800). (I am also very curious if Coops has someone in his family named Janus who was born in 1988.)
Just a partial and not-fleshed-out idea to control AI resources is to make excursion to AI space like Derelict Exploration.
Go through your quest chain, where you will probably need 20 gray crystals and 40 ROLF 03 units, and you get the Techno Buzzword Shield POD (or special).
To enter AI Space, you must guard yourself and your ship against the saturation of high-energy radiation that permeates all of AI Space, which would carbonize organic life in seconds. You must equip the TBS Device and a ship shield of any kind (Absorbtion, Reflective, or Phased). The AI Space Gateway also blocks ships that have any structural damage, or a TBS that is not fully charged.
In AI space, most of the planets are undockable, as the AI still sees us as an organic disease to be purged. There might be a few planets who only have Storage, CSTS, and ORSA fields, or planets can be discounted entirely. There should be an asteroid field or two or three.
Your TBS Device has structure points, and there may be basic and enhanced versions buildable through Engineering or making it rain for Coops at the Store (Coopsy £ove). Think of this as your oxygen when exploring derelicts. The limit to your activity is your Techno Buzzword Shield.
Each action reduces your TBS by one structure point. When mining, firing the mining laser and each collection click is one action, so one round of mining could be six actions against your TBS. Combat and salvaging should similarly be one TBS point lost per click in the game. If there are planets and/or space stations (with android-only crews, of course), docking and disembarking is one click. Moving from location to location, or docking at a jump gate, or jumping to a new system, are all one structure point lost.
Everything you do pushes a countdown.
When your TBS hits zero, the radiation starts hitting your ship. Your ship takes 500 (perhaps 1000) damage for each click, starting at your shield. The damage is accrued for each click until you escape AI space.
When the damage passes your ship's shield and hits your ship's armor, you can no longer add items to your cargo hold. Your cargo hold goes into lock-down. This should also apply to loot items, if possible.
When the damage passes your ship's armor and hits your ship's hull, your cargo hold is compromised and jettisoned. The captain's health and stamina are also each reduced to 1, meaning the captain would have to heal from severe radiation poisoning before exploring any derelicts or planets. (Wouldn't buying those regen upgrades from the CES store be appealing?)
If your TBS is not functional, shield and ship repair items will not function. (For those doing combat, if your TBS is functional, you can repair your shields and ship, but that is an action.)
If the hull hits 0, emergency drones tow the ship to the AI gate, with a large loss of XP (50% current level requirements? which could easily put a player deep-negative) and expense in millions of credits (100K per level?). A hull breach with no TBS should be a frightening thing.
If you leave AI space safely, your TBS recharges at a base rate ten structure points per hour.
So.
There is still a guard on the value of AI items because AI space would be available to high level players. Even for those players, there would be a hard limit on how much you can do per trip, and it cold take a day or even two before you could charge your TBS to return to AI space. Even high level players would be subject to the radiation hazard. The highest level players would have more of an advantage because they would have more powerful shields, and so could last longer after their TBS gives out. They might even be able to sacrifice armor to escape, but it would be a gamble. If they count wrong, their hold could be jettisoned. (Your hold is jettisoned the first action your ship takes hull damage without a TBS, not when the hull hits 0.)
This also makes some game elements work against each other. Requiring a shield is a major power draw, which is a disadvantage if you are entering to mine or salvage (power-hungry endeavors). You could go to a small, cheap shield, but then escaping AI space if your TBS gets too low becomes blind panic. Combat role ships would survive longer without the TBS, but that would limit power for mining. (Though new AI Space only combat drones and ship could be added, making combat in AI space more valuable than just combat at a nova.)
This could also open up a few items in the Store, benefiting Coops. As stated, the personal regeneration boosts have value. There can also be a Radiation Damage Inhibitor implant that causes the captain to loose half his/her stamina and hit points rather than going to 1. There is also the possibility of better TBS POD's, AI Space extractors, and a TBS Regeneration Boost that permanently increases your TBS regeneration by 50%. Coops could also sell TBS repair kits, perhaps even high-repair kits that work in normal space and low-repair kits that work within AI Space. (Having a few +10 TBS point boosters could make a big difference if you miscount clicks.) There could be AI Space Mining Drones that are shielded from AI subversion that gather basic resources, like Fragment versions of the AI-UN materials that can be refined into AI-UN units in refineries, or an inexpensive captain upgrade that lets your Advanced Mining Drones operate safely in AI space. Or, all the current mining drones can be used but wear out at x10 normal rate, unless you have the Drone Firewall by Truly Wonderful (from the CES).
So anyway, this is just an idea. I know that, best case, nothing will come of it anytime soon (or possibly ever), but I'm putting it in print.
Thank you for your time.