AUSTIN — Jack Conte, the CEO of Patreon, is drawing a line in the sand for the AI industry. Speaking at SXSW this week, Conte made a forceful case that AI companies should pay creators when their work is used to train models, dismissing the industry's 'fair use' defense as 'bogus.'

'It’s bogus because while they claim it’s fair to use the work of creators as training data, they do multi-million dollar deals with rights holders like Disney and Warner Music,' Conte stated, reading from a prepared manifesto. 'If it’s legal to just use it, why pay? Why pay them and not the millions of illustrators and musicians whose work built this value?'

Conte, a musician who founded Patreon to solve the problem of getting paid for creative work, positioned AI as the latest disruptive shift for artists, akin to the move from iTunes to streaming. He insists he is not anti-technology—'I run a frickin’ tech company,' he noted—but is advocating for a fair economic structure. He believes creators will adapt and thrive, but not if their labor is effectively appropriated.

'Change does not mean death. You can get back up, and you can fucking go again,' he said, drawing on his own experience. His core argument leverages Patreon's scale: with hundreds of thousands of creators on the platform, he represents a significant bloc demanding a seat at the table.

Conte ended on a philosophical note, arguing that planning for a future with advanced AI must include planning for artists. 'Societies that value and incentivize creativity are better for all of us,' he said. He remains confident that human-made art will endure, precisely because it does something AI currently cannot: 'Great artists... push culture forward.'

Source: TechCrunch