Despite the massive OpenAI-Disney deal, there is no clarity on how licensing fees will flow down to the original creators of characters. This mirrors a long-standing Hollywood issue where creators under "work for hire" agreements see little upside from their creations, a problem AI licensing could exacerbate.

The internet's value stems from an economy of unique human creations. AI-generated content, or "slop," replaces this with low-quality, soulless output, breaking the internet's economic engine. This trend now appears in VC pitches, with founders presenting AI-generated ideas they don't truly understand.

By paying a creator a flat monthly fee (e.g., $900) for daily posts, brands can achieve a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) of around $2. This is a significant discount compared to the average $6 CPM on platforms like Facebook, representing a major marketing arbitrage opportunity.

The primary barrier to properly valuing creativity in advertising is the industry's reliance on a service-based, billable-hour model. This is a fundamental flaw that prevents creative work from being valued on its impact and outcome, unlike in the tech industry.

The modern creator economy prioritizes immediate monetization via ads or subscriptions. The older model of patronage—direct financial support from an individual without expectation of direct ROI—can liberate creators from chasing metrics, enabling them to focus on producing high-quality, meaningful work.

Avoid building your primary content presence on platforms like Medium or Quora. These platforms inevitably shift focus from serving users to serving advertisers and their own bottom line, ultimately degrading reach and control for creators. Use them as spokes, but always own your central content hub.

AI services crawl web content but present answers directly, breaking the traditional model where creators earn revenue from traffic. Without compensation, the incentive to produce quality content diminishes, putting the web's business model at risk.

An AI CEO predicts that within two years, AI tools will make content creation instantaneous and nearly free. This will destroy traditional moats like audience loyalty and production quality, as anyone can generate photorealistic content. The market will shift focus from the creator to the individual content piece.

Creator agencies and networks price talent efficiently. The real opportunity is in mass outreach to smaller creators (10k-50k subs) who don't know their market value. A fraction will underprice themselves so dramatically that they become a marketing arbitrage opportunity.