AI giants are buying raw videos from influencers

AI models are increasingly eager for content for their own training. One of the most valuable and highest-paying resources seems to be never-released videos by creators or influencers. Big names in the artificial intelligence segment are buying video clips produced and never put online to improve the capabilities of their large language models (LLM). Prices go up to $4 per minute for unreleased footage.

An eraser has never been so valuable

Bloomberg tells how tech giants such as OpenAI and Google are buying unreleased videos from well-known creators to train their language models behind the best-known AI tools, such as Gemini and ChatGPT. Unlike the huge content libraries that are already the center of multi-million dollar dealsnot to mention unauthorized sources or questionable methods, the clips private content from creators can be a much more attractive resource, since they are content that has never been seen by a large public, nor by other AI models or agents.

The demand for videos for AI training is well known, but there is also a market for photos and articles that could serve as digital fuel for the survival of artificial intelligence models and to improve their effectiveness, speed and precision. Although AI models are already being trained with material of synthetic origin, real content is capable of making a difference. Payment starts at $1 for standard unedited material, and can go up to $4 for clips high quality 4K and from authorized creators on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

The rapid growth of AI also affects these training methods, which do not seem destined to last long. “Buying unreleased videos could last a couple of years at most,” says Dan Levitt, senior vice president at creator rights agency Wasserman, which handles sales of unreleased material. He compares this practice to a kind of arms race, where everyone needs material. In the past, WIRED reported on Calliope Networks, an AI-focused startup, looking to implement the program “License to Scrape” (License to Scratch [datos]), addressed directly to youtubers to market their content or cancel it for AI training. “I think in the next two years licensing will be profitable for creators who are willing to do it. But I don’t think it will last long.”

Article originally published in WIRED Italy. Adapted by Alondra Flores.