Should Your Company License Content to Machine Learning?

0:28This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. back support is made with a blend of melatonin and L-theanine for both kiddos and grown-ups. So when your mind won't switch off, you've got something that can help. Erasing thoughts and restless nights won't stand a chance. Find Oli Sleep Solutions for the whole family at Oli.com. That's O-L-L-Y dot com. A lot of big media companies have licensed content to AI models. It's an opportunity for your company to license content as well. A recent$1.5 billion dollar anthropic settlement with book publishers and authors put a spotlight on licensing deals.

1:03This is a market that is growing rapidly. Two years ago, there was an estimated$75 million in AI licensing deals. This year, the number could be as high as$20 billion. Next year, it could be twice that. The market is shifting from big deals to train general purpose AI to more specialized deals with very specific content. So think photos of New Orleans pre-Katrina or 1990s TV footage to help train bots to speak to middle-aged customers. Think about whether you have a trove of content that could be valuable. And this could be your advertising data, what has performed, what hasn't. It could be analytical reports about companies.

1:42It could be anonymized health data that could help in the health industry. There's a lot of data that could actually have value. But before you just jump in, you have to ask yourself, do you really own the IP to this content? And secondly, are you comfortable with who you're dealing with that they have guardrails to protect your privacy? At the end of the day, licensing is not for everybody, but it can be a new revenue stream if you prepare carefully. So to learn more, please check out my newsletter and subscribe to HBR Executive.