Who should get paid when AI learns from creative work?
Generative AI now drafts, draws, and edits at scale. The question creatives ask is simple: if models learn from our work, who gets paid?
A new proposal in the Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property suggests a clear answer: a "learnright" that lets creators license their work specifically for AI training. It would add a new, explicit right on top of copyright-so creators can say yes, no, or license for a fee.
The core idea: learnright
Learnright would be a seventh exclusive right under copyright, focused on machine learning. It wouldn't replace copyright-it plugs a gap where training use is not clearly covered today.
Under learnright, AI companies would license training rights for specific datasets, the way they already pay for news archives or stock photos. That creates a trackable market for the "fuel" models rely on-your work.
Why this matters now
Most frontier models are trained on massive internet scrapes-books, journalism, photography, artwork, code, and social posts. Lawsuits argue that training on copyrighted material without permission isn't okay. Courts are split, especially on whether training is fair use. For context, see the U.S. Copyright Office's overview of fair use here.
Meanwhile, the fallout is real. Signature styles can be copied in seconds. News gets summarized without credit or clicks. And creative pros worry their past work is used to automate their next project. Learnright aims to settle the rules and make sure value flows back to the source.
How it would work (in practice)
- Licensing: Training on a work becomes a licensable use, separate from reading, viewing, or streaming.
- Dataset deals: AI firms license training sets (not just individual files), similar to music or photo libraries.
- Collective management: Clearinghouses handle rights and payouts, modeled on how music royalties work.
- Market rates: Prices are set through negotiation, not guesswork or unilateral scraping.
- Clarity: Creators get leverage and compensation; AI developers get legal certainty to ship products.
Common pushback-and the response
"This will slow innovation." Unchecked training might actually slow progress by cannibalizing the human work models need. Research shows models trained on model outputs degrade over time-a feedback loop known as "model collapse" documented here.
"Startups can't afford it." Clear licensing beats lawsuits and takedowns. Collective licenses can keep costs predictable, just like radio or streaming royalties did for music.
What this means for creatives
Learnright is about more than law. It's incentives, credit, and respect. If society wants ongoing art, journalism, design, and code, creators need a reason to keep producing-and a say in how their work trains machines.
Practically, it puts you at the table. Your portfolio becomes an asset class with licensing options, not just content to be scraped.
Moves you can make now
- Set terms: Add clear language to your site, portfolio, and contracts about AI training permissions and fees.
- Use signals: Block known training bots in robots.txt and include "no AI training" notices where relevant.
- Join forces: Support guilds, unions, or rights orgs that can negotiate collective licenses on your behalf.
- Track usage: Keep a clean archive of your work, timestamps, and public postings to support claims if needed.
- Be strategic with AI: Use tools and datasets with transparent licensing; keep human-made, premium work in your pipeline.
Where policy could go next
Lawmakers are actively exploring rules for generative AI. Learnright offers a middle path: don't ban training, but don't make creators subsidize it for free. It's simple enough to implement and fair enough to scale.
Bottom line
AI companies pay their teams and their chip suppliers. The training data-your work-shouldn't be the free part. Expect more movement on learnright, and prepare your business to license, negotiate, and get credited for what you create.
If you're updating your skill stack to work alongside AI (and protect your value), explore role-specific learning paths here: Complete AI Training - Courses by Job.
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