Influencers are getting fleeced by A.I. companies

Peak Data Has Arrived—Now What?

We’ve hit peak data. AI companies have scraped every publicly available scrap of information—websites, social media, research papers, forums. If it was out there, it’s now inside a model. That was phase one. Now, they’re looking for what’s behind closed doors. In order to move from feeling like the models are spitting out fancy "duh," they'll need volumes of articulated professional design thinking.

The Hunt for Expert Knowledge

The new frontier isn’t just more data—it’s better data. Specifically, reasoning data. The kind of insight that doesn’t exist in raw numbers or public text but in the minds of professionals who know what they’re talking about. AI companies are desperate for it, but there’s a catch: real expertise isn’t cheap. You can’t pay bottom-dollar for high-level thinking and the A.I. bubble is already financially fragile!

So who’s getting fleeced first? You may already know...

Influencers as the Unwitting AI Workforce

Professional influencers—the ones sharing the most, their process, their unique way of thinking—are the new data mines. Every time they share, they’re feeding the machine. No, the algorithm doesn’t care about your unboxing video, but if you’re breaking down complex concepts, solving problems, or innovating in your field, congratulations. You’re the next training set.

Thinking your videos are safe? Guess again, they are transcribing every word in your videos and analyzing every frame for relevant data.

I don’t share much. I’m not an influencer. Nobody’s scraping my offhand comments. But this blog? My writing? If it’s public, it’s fair game. That’s why I keep certain things private. If you want that knowledge, you’ll have to know me, work with me, or collaborate. I love sharing. I believe in the open exchange of ideas. What I don’t believe in is Silicon Valley getting first dibs to sell our skills and possibly never cut us in on it.

Watermarking the Future

I plan to fight back in my own way. I’ll be salting my work with subtle, trackable markers, and I’m building a bot to check future AI models for my fingerprints. If I ever catch my words in a model’s response, they’re getting a letter from me. But what will that do? Likely nothing.

But let’s be real—this is a cat-and-mouse game now. Creators, artisans, professionals, and practitioners will be playing defense for years. AI companies are in such a frenzied race to build the best model that they haven’t stopped to figure out how to pay or credit the people making it possible. It’s going to be a mess. As these models start to challenge the very existence of those who shared their data, you can bet there will be an uprising.

The Future of Expertise Is Paywalled

At best, another middleman will rise up, offering to help us reclaim our stolen work—for a cut, of course. There’s no win anymore. In the early days of the internet, sharing was the point. Musicians didn’t care if their songs were getting passed around as long as people were listening. Now? Because of Silicon Valley platforms, musicians can not make a living off their music alone. They have to sell an entire persona just to scrape by.

It’s depressing. And it makes me rethink everything. If you have professional-grade insights, maybe hold your cards close for the next few years. See how this shakes out. A few years ago, I NEVER would have said that. I’m an open-source-minded person. I believe in the power of shared knowledge.

But when the most powerful people in the world start pointing the most advanced technology back at the labor force? Maybe it’s time to be a little more careful.

I don’t have the answers. I just know this: the game has changed.