The Prisoner's Dilemma Between AI and Creators

Last week, I described how OpenAI's new image generator turned the internet into a Ghibli-themed playground overnight.

As we've witnessed GPT-4o's image generator evolve from announcement (March 25) to viral Ghibli-style trend (March 28) to free tier access (March 31) to watermarking tests (April 6), a darker pattern has emerged beneath the surface.

We're witnessing a classic prisoner's dilemma playing out in real time.

OpenAI's Creativity Heist and What Survives

AI companies like OpenAI benefit enormously from using creative content to train their models, while individual creators find themselves unable to effectively withhold their work or demand fair compensation. The Nash equilibrium heavily favors technology companies, systematically devaluing creative labor at every turn.

This isn't merely disruption—it's erosion. Value is disappearing at every level of this relationship. The cycle is both comprehensive and self-reinforcing:

Stolen training data → copyright-infringing outputs → automated creative tasks → degraded appreciation for original work.

Each turn shifts more power and economic value toward AI companies and away from creators.

Time is not on the creators' side.

Every day, more content is scraped, more models are trained, more creative jobs disappear, and more audiences are conditioned to consume AI-generated content without questioning its origins.

The longer this continues, the harder it becomes to reset the balance.

While cooperation would benefit everyone AI companies and creators are locked in a zero-sum game in which individual incentives push toward mutual destruction. The outlook heavily favors tech companies while systematically devaluing creative labor. And unlike past disruptions, this one doesn't just change how creative work happens, but erodes its very economic foundation.

If there is a RESET button, we should press it now.

You have never read something similar to this, and will likely not find it elsewhere. So save it now.

I am very honored to collaborate on this with

Graham Lovelace

, the writer and strategist, well-known for championing the cause of creators’ rights in his widely read Substack, Charting Gen AI, and his keynote appearances.

We aim to strip away the facades used by AI companies and big corporate CEOs as we analyse the key players in the game, consider their odds, and suggest how we might find this elusive RESET button for everyone’s sake in or around the creative ecosystem.

I've spent months analyzing this standoff, and Graham and I are convinced that without intervention, we're heading toward a future where original creative work is devalued beyond recognition.

In this article, we will start with

• Explaining the system and the players

• The current equilibrium between the players, ie. AI companies and creators

Then we explore three potential solutions that could break this deadlock

1. Creator-controlled AI fine-tuning platforms that allow artists to license their works and creative style while maintaining control

2. Platform collaboration between content hosts and AI companies to block crawlers or negotiate compensation

3. Governance frameworks that establish clear boundaries without stifling innovation

Shall we?