Behind the Curtain: What does AI owe YOU?

You could easily live without AI. But AI wouldn't exist without you.So does AI owe you for your small part in creating it?Why it matters: This question sits at the very heart of legal, economic, moral and societal debates unfolding before us today — and deep into the future. The answer will unlock everything from court verdicts to the fortunes of financial winners and losers years from now.The big picture: First, the facts. Large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude were built by ingesting the totality of human information online — everything from news stories by Axios to social media postings by you.AI developers call this "training data" because they used the internet — and all its content — to train machines to think, reason and operate like the humans feeding the web. The goal: think better, faster and cheaper than us. Then, unleash these machines everywhere for everything.By 2025, content produced by billions of internet users helped shape the massive digital corpus that modern AI models were trained on — mostly through public, web-accessible data. Think any content — posts, blogs, forums, websites, Wikipedia edits, reviews, and videos.Some content owners — mass producers and individual creators — are suing AI companies for using their content without permission. The litigation — by media companies, music producers, book publishers — is often brought under copyright laws. AI makers defend their use of protected content by invoking long-contested "fair use" principles.Copyright owners have filed close to 50 lawsuits against AI companies in federal court, according to the Copyright Alliance, which represents creators.Some publishers, including News Corp and Axios, have struck deals with OpenAI for use of their content.The Supreme Court could ultimately decide — likely years from now — whether the owners of these LLMs violated federal law with their training tactics."We're at the top of the first inning of understanding how the courts are going to define fair use as it applies to AI training," Keith Kupferschmid, president and CEO of the Copyright Alliance, tells us. He said cases involving images and music will be more difficult for AI companies to win, while cases involving text are more complex.But what about you? If you ever posted a comment on Reddit, or tweeted, or shared pictures on Instagram, or posted a rant on Facebook, you're a tiny part of the LLMs' brains.Your words were gobbled up to help train the machines, creating untold riches for tech companies and investors. But no one asked your permission or offered to compensate for that tiny part you played in making others rich.It's doubtful you'll get a penny for your time or mind now. President Trump, in his speech at last month's AI summit in Washington, made plain his opposition to companies doling out cash based on derivative use of the internet (unless it's blatant piracy)."[W]hen you read something and when it goes into this vast intelligence machine, we'll call it, you cannot expect to every time, every single time, say: 'Oh, let's pay this one that much,'" he said. "[W]e have to allow AI to use that pool of knowledge without going through the complexity of contract negotiations, of which there would be thousands for every time we use AI."His main point: It would give China an insurmountable edge if we tie ourselves in knots over who owes what to whom.But some AI leaders, most notably Anthropic's Dario Amodei, argue you should benefit — in the future. They believe if AI only enriches the big companies and investors, America will face a rebellion — and potentially sky-high unemployment.So instead of paying you now, which might hamstring the companies, they talk of spreading the wealth if AI truly creates trillions of dollars of wealth long-term. This could be as novel as a guaranteed minimum income (universal basic income, or UBI), funded by AI companies, or as ordinary as higher taxes on AI to fund social programs and government overall.Or it could be a private sector indirect benefit of higher growth, driving higher wages.Regardless, the AI companies will get a lot bigger and a lot richer — before you get a penny, if you ever do.Go deeper ... "Behind the Curtain: The AI super-stimulant."

Comments

World news

Russia to sell crops from occupied areas of Ukraine

Independent

Comments

Similar News

The story behind one grim image of a mother and child in Gaza

Russians suffer '1,000 casualties' as Ukraine troops attack behind enemy lines

Yvette Cooper says ‘crammed’ small boats using shallow water launches behind rise in arrival numbers – UK politics live

Putin and Trump's relationship has soured - but behind the posturing, a Ukraine deal is still possible

Scientists identify bacterium behind devastating wasting disease in starfish

George Osborne says UK has been left behind in cryptocurrency boom

Behind the Curtain: AI is shouldering the American economy

UK is being ‘left behind’ on crypto, says former chancellor

Mum dumped baby's body in bag behind sofa after deceiving partner, court hears

From friend to foe: Behind the tangled relationship between Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump

The logic behind the deregulation push by Reeves is flawed

Corporation behind funds for PBS and NPR says it’s ending operations after Trump cuts

Zoo worker mauled to death by tiger after it escaped during behind-the-scenes tour

An injured Ukrainian soldier was stuck behind enemy lines for days. He escaped on an e-bike airdropped by a drone

Woman disguised pregnancy until partner found dead baby behind their sofa

Adoptive dad sentenced to 50 years behind bars after son was found dead in a washing machine

The terrifying reality behind one of America’s fastest-growing dairy brands

India says it killed militants behind the deadly attack on civilians in Kashmir

NYC shooting gunman left behind note appearing to blame NFL for brain injury

Unsung hero behind hula hoop invention dies aged 101

World news

Russia to sell crops from occupied areas of Ukraine

Driver fined after being caught doing record speed on Germany’s Autobahn

Candace Owens makes $300,000 bet with Piers Morgan over Brigitte Macron despite lawsuit

Mapped: Wildfires in France and Spain as huge blazes break out in 40C European heatwave

Trump names JD Vance as his heir apparent and names other cabinet members who could ‘help’ MAGA in 2028

Georgian journalist is convicted of slapping a police office at a protest and gets 2 years in prison

Afghan women turn to secret online coding courses to beat Taliban education ban

Trump’s destructive plan ‘will deny 1.4m women and girls birth control’

Ghislaine Maxwell told Justice Department she never saw Trump do anything concerning with Epstein, report says

Dramatic video shows firefighters battling 991 acre wildfire in California

Howard Stern’s iconic radio show is facing cancelation as his $100M Sirius contract nears its end

Watch: Trump envoy Witkoff meets with Putin as Russia-Ukraine peace deadline looms

Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein’s friendship timeline: From philanthropy to ‘Lolita Express’ trips

Spanish wildfires rage as tourists forced to evacuate holiday hotspot

Chilling map shows what would happen if the Hiroshima bomb was dropped on London

Millionaire trophy hunter gored to death by 1.3 tonne bull on African safari

How Trump Lost the War on Climate—to China

The Gen Z divide that could decide the next election

Should the Bank of England cut the base rate on Thursday? Two economists debate

I was a Noughties magazine editor – this era is much worse for women

The number that proves you shouldn’t feel sorry for private schools

Matt Willis: ‘Hot girls never impressed me – until I met Emma’

Trump is chickening out again – this time over TikTok

MAGA expectations soar after DOJ orders Russia grand jury probe

Behind the Curtain: What does AI owe YOU?

Iran executes man accused of spying for Israel and one for planning IS group sabotage

Wife of South Korea's ousted ex-President Yoon appears for questioning over corruption allegations

China tackles chikungunya virus outbreak as thousands fall ill

A wildfire in southern France has killed 1 and injured several and is still spreading

Rescuers search for dozens missing after deadly flash floods kill 4 in northern India

Afghan women turn to online courses as the Taliban bans education

Separatist Bosnian Serb leader Dodik removed from office by Bosnian election authorities

No outright winner from Charity Commission's verdict on row between Harry and Sentebale chair

Dozens believed to be trapped under rubble after flash floods in northern India

Ontario initially found Hwy. 401 tunnel plan had ‘potential for roadway collapse’

Three evacuated after medical emergency at US Antarctic research base

JB Pritzker refuses to rule out gerrymandering in Illinois because GOP has ‘thrown the rule book out’

Deadly wildfires strike France as huge blaze continues to spread

Attack on former DOGE staffer known as ‘Big Balls’ prompts Trump to threaten to federalize DC

Explained: How much Russian oil does India buy?

Gaza from above: Chilling aerial footage shows devastation of enclave

Wednesday finally gives us the Addams Family twist we were promised

AI execs back OpenAI's open-source return

NATO state Romania forced to scramble F-16 war planes due to Putin drone strike

'I moved from US to UK and there's 3 British things I now couldn't live without'

'Ghost' £240million new airport with one just passenger flight a week

Oceangate's Titan whistleblower: 'People were sold a lie'

Inside Ukraine’s effort to produce more of its own weapons to fight Putin as Trump’s support flip-flops

Sweden, Norway and Denmark to buy $500 million of US arms for Ukraine war under new Nato scheme

Update in case of ‘Ketamine Queen’ accused of selling Matthew Perry fatal dose

E. coli outbreak in Florida linked to raw milk

Who are the biggest buyers of Russian oil?

Great Barrier Reef sees sharpest annual coral decline in nearly four decades

Hiroshima warns against nuclear weapons as it marks 80 years since atomic bomb

One person dies and hundreds flee after wildfires spread across France and Spain

The US, Russia and China are all wooing Syria – here’s what they really want

Home Office spends thousands on asylum hotel for politician able to pay £110k bail