Patreon CEO Jack Conte affirmed that he is not opposed to artificial intelligence, stating, “I run a frickin’ tech company,” to the audience at the SXSW conference in Austin this week. However, the founder of the prominent creator platform emphasized that his stance is not without boundaries. Conte strongly disagrees with AI companies utilizing creators' work to train their models without offering compensation, dismissing their claim of "fair use" as a "bogus" argument.
During his SXSW address, Conte framed AI as the latest in a series of disruptive shifts that creators have navigated repeatedly throughout the internet era. Drawing parallels to transitions like the move from purchasing music on iTunes to streaming services, or the adoption of vertical video formats popularized by TikTok, he acknowledged that AI is likely to dismantle many established models that creative individuals have diligently built over the years. Nevertheless, he expressed confidence in their ability to adapt and thrive.
“I learned a very important thing as an artist, which is that change does not mean death. You can get back up, and you can fucking go again,” Conte shared. He founded Patreon specifically to address a challenge he encountered as a musician: ensuring creators are fairly compensated for their work.
Consistent with this philosophy, Conte firmly believes that AI companies should not be permitted to ingest creators' content for model training without some form of remuneration.
“The AI companies are claiming fair use, but this argument is bogus,” Conte declared, referencing a printout of what he called his manifesto. He elaborated, “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 and publishers like Disney and Condé Nast and Vox and Warner Music.”
Conte highlighted the inherent contradiction, noting that if the AI companies' fair use argument were genuinely legally sound, they would have no reason to pay these major rights holders.
“If it’s legal to just use it, why pay?” he questioned rhetorically. He further pressed, “Why pay them and not creators — not the millions of illustrators and musicians and writers — whose work has been consumed by these models to build hundreds of billions of dollars of value for these companies?”
It is evident that Conte aims to secure similar compensation for Patreon’s extensive community of creators. He is leveraging Patreon’s significant scale, representing hundreds of thousands of creators, to bolster this argument.
The founder clarified that his critique of AI companies' practices stems not from being anti-AI, anti-tech, or even anti-change.
“I accept the inevitability of change, and I feel agency in discovering my next path through the chaos. A part of that challenge even excites me,” Conte stated. He continued, “Still, the AI companies should pay creators for our work, not because the tech is bad — but because a lot of it is good, or it will be soon — and it’s going to be the future. And when we plan for humanity’s future, we should plan for society’s artists, too, not just for their sake, but for the sake of all of us. Societies that value and incentivize creativity are better for it.”
Conte concluded his address on an optimistic note, expressing his conviction that humans will continue to create and appreciate the work of other humans for a considerable time, regardless of AI's advancements in this domain.
“Great artists don’t play back what already exists,” Conte asserted, drawing a distinction from Large Language Models' (LLMs) predictive output capabilities. “They stand on the shoulders of giants. They push culture forward.”
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