Everyone in the visual content industry agrees, at least publicly, that authentic imagery should be worth more than AI-generated slop. Photographers say it. Agencies say it. Publishers say it. I’ve said it myself, many times, in this publication and elsewhere. Provenance matters. Trust matters. Reality matters. And yet, nothingContinue Reading
On March 10, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to demand a new licensing framework for AI training. Across the Atlantic, private data brokers are raising tens of millions to license content directly. Both approaches claim to solve the same problem. Neither does. The Axel Voss resolution passed with 460 votesContinue Reading
On March 10, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to demand a new licensing framework for AI training. Across the Atlantic, private data brokers are raising tens of millions to license content directly. Both approaches claim to solve the same problem. Neither does. The Axel Voss resolution passed with 460 votesContinue Reading
The Getty–Shutterstock merger has a real competition problem. It also has no clean remedy. In June 2026, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority will render its final verdict on the Getty Images–Shutterstock merger. Based on everything that has emerged from the investigation, the most likely outcome is a yes, but.Continue Reading
The quest for content authenticity amidst generative AI has led to various solutions, primarily blockchain and centralized platforms. However, these often create access barriers, undermining true distributed trust. Effective trust infrastructure needs universal accessibility, avoiding monetization that limits access. Solutions must resist becoming rent-seeking mechanisms, ensuring long-term and equitable verification systems.Continue Reading
The promise is seductive: generate product photography in seconds, automate image editing at scale, produce marketing visuals without the overhead of traditional production. Generative AI tools for visual content have moved from experimental curiosity to operational necessity faster than most compliance frameworks can adapt. If your organizationContinue Reading
Cloudflare acquired Human Native on January 15, 2026. The London startup had built a marketplace connecting content owners with AI companies seeking training data. The deal completes an 18-month infrastructure build, but the strategic question remains: is Cloudflare operating a toll booth that charges for passage, a warehouse that aggregatesContinue Reading
The industry finally stopped theorizing and started building the infrastructure to preserve truth itself We’ve reached the inflection point. Not the one we’ll read about in retrospect, but the one happening right now—where the exponential flood of AI-generated content threatens to drown out any meaningful signal of authenticity. The WorldContinue Reading
As the internet evolves into an AI agent repository database, filled with text, images, videos, and sounds specifically built to be used and consumed by AI systems, we can envision a segregated internet area solely reserved for real human beings, where access is predicated on proving one’s humanity through increasinglyContinue Reading
As the EU AI Act’s obligations for general-purpose AI models take effect, the age of opaque training data and untraceable outputs is drawing to a close. The Shifting Sands of AI Regulation The era of unregulated AI development is coming to an end, at least in Europe. As generative AIContinue Reading