Brookings' framing cuts to the core tension in content licensing: the deals AI labs are signing don't create a new, open data market—they route payment through the same incumbent publishers and platforms that already controlled distribution. That matters for pricing because it means token costs for licensed text will track legacy media leverage, not marginal data scarcity.
Expect the biggest checks from OpenAI, Google, and Meta to keep flowing to the largest rights holders, while smaller creators and niche archives get squeezed out of the negotiating table entirely.
Same gatekeepers, new tollbooths in the AI content licensing market
