Patreon CEO Dismisses AI Fair Use Claims as Bogus, Urges Creator Compensation

Patreon CEO Jack Conte is not opposed to artificial intelligence. He can't afford to be.

"I run a technology company, after all," he told the audience at the SXSW conference in Austin this week. However, the founder of the creator platform has his boundaries. Conte argues that AI companies should not train their models on creators' work without compensation, dismissing their "fair use" justification as a flawed argument.

In his SXSW talk, Conte framed AI as the latest disruptive shift in a cycle that creators have navigated repeatedly in the internet era. Similar to the transition from buying music on iTunes to streaming, or the move to vertical video formats popularized by TikTok, AI is poised to disrupt many of the business models creators have built over years. Yet, he remains confident they will adapt and succeed.

"As an artist, I learned a crucial lesson: change does not mean the end. You can get back up and keep pushing forward," said Conte, who founded Patreon to address a challenge he faced as a musician: getting audiences to pay creators for their work.

Likewise, he strongly objects to AI companies harvesting creators' content to train their models without offering any form of payment.

"AI companies are hiding behind fair use, but their argument doesn't hold up," Conte stated, reading from his printed speech, or what he called his manifesto. "It's flawed because while they claim it's fair to use creators' work as training data, they're simultaneously signing multi-million dollar deals with major rights holders and publishers like Disney, Condé Nast, Vox, and Warner Music."

He pointed out that if the AI firms' fair use defense was legally sound, they wouldn't be paying these large copyright holders at all.

"If it's legal to just take the content, why pay anyone?" he asked rhetorically. "Why pay these corporations but not the millions of illustrators, musicians, and writers whose work has been ingested by these models to generate hundreds of billions of dollars in value for these companies?"

Reading between the lines, it's evident Conte wants Patreon's vast community of creators to benefit from similar compensation. He is leveraging Patreon's scale—a community of hundreds of thousands—to strengthen this position.

The founder clarified that his criticism of AI companies' practices is not rooted in opposition to AI, technology, or even change itself.

"I accept that change is inevitable, and I believe in finding my own path forward through the chaos. That challenge is even exciting in part," Conte said. "Nevertheless, AI companies should pay creators for our work, not because the technology is bad—much of it is good or will be soon, and it represents the future. When we plan for humanity's future, we must include society's artists. This isn't just for their sake, but for all of us. Societies that value and reward creativity are better for everyone," he added.

He concluded on an optimistic note, affirming his belief that humans will continue to create and appreciate human-made art for a long time, regardless of AI's advancements.

"Great artists don't merely replicate what already exists," Conte said, alluding to the predictive nature of large language models. "They build upon the legacy of giants. They propel culture forward."