Patreon CEO calls AI companies’ fair use argument ‘bogus,’ says creators should be paid

Patreon CEO Jack Conte, speaking at SXSW, argues that AI companies' fair use defense for training on creators' content is hypocritical because they simultaneously pay major publishers like Disney and Condé Nast for licensed content. He contends that if fair use were a sound legal argument, these companies wouldn't be cutting deals with large rightsholders while leaving individual creators uncompensated. Conte frames AI as another wave of disruption creators must navigate, but insists that compensation for training data is a matter of fairness and societal value for creativity.