Patreon CEO Jack Conte says he is not anti-AI. As the founder of a technology company, he cannot be. However, he has clear limits. Conte does not believe AI companies should train their models on the work of creators without compensation. He calls their decision to label this practice as “fair use” a bogus argument.
Conte presented AI as another disruptive moment in the ongoing cycle creators have faced throughout the internet age. Similar to shifts from buying music on iTunes to streaming, or adapting video for vertical formats like TikTok, AI will likely break many models that creative people have built. Yet he believes creators will ultimately thrive.
He learned as an artist that change does not mean death. You can get back up and try again. He created Patreon to solve a problem he faced as a musician: getting people to pay creators for their work. Similarly, he argues AI companies should not use creators’ content for training without some form of payment.
Conte stated that the fair use argument is bogus because while AI companies claim it is fair to use creators’ work as training data, they simultaneously make multi-million dollar deals with large rights holders like Disney, Condé Nast, Vox, and Warner Music. If their fair use argument were legally sound, he noted, they would not be paying these entities.
He asked why these companies pay large rights holders but not the millions of illustrators, musicians, and writers whose work has been used to build hundreds of billions of dollars in value. Reading between the lines, Conte would like Patreon’s own community of creators to tap into some of those payouts. He is leveraging Patreon’s scale as a community of hundreds of thousands to make that case.
Conte clarified that his criticism is not because he is anti-AI, anti-tech, or even anti-change. He accepts the inevitability of change and feels agency in finding a new path forward. Part of that challenge even excites him. Still, he insists AI companies should pay creators for their work, not because the technology is bad, but because much of it is good or will be soon, and it represents the future.
When planning for humanity’s future, he believes we should plan for society’s artists too, not just for their sake, but for everyone’s benefit. Societies that value and incentivize creativity are better for it.
Conte ended on a hopeful note, expressing his belief that humans will continue to make and enjoy the work of other humans for a long time, regardless of AI’s progress. Great artists do not simply play back what already exists, he said. They stand on the shoulders of giants and push culture forward.