Source: Promarket

ProMarket publishes an analysis arguing that the current trend of exclusive licensing deals between major AI firms and large content publishers is creating a "digital enclosure loop" that threatens competition. The article observes that companies like OpenAI and Amazon are securing exclusive access to high-quality archives from entities like News Corp and The New York Times, effectively building insurmountable "data moats." These barriers prevent smaller startups from accessing the high-quality, human-generated data necessary to train competitive models, risking the formation of an entrenched AI oligopoly where only a few dominant players control both the technology and the input data.

The author contends that traditional legal tools, such as copyright's fair use doctrine and standard antitrust enforcement, are ill-equipped to address this rapid market concentration. The proposed solution is a system of "compulsory access licenses" or statutory licensing arrangements. Such a framework would mandate that if data is licensed to one AI developer, it must be made available to others on reasonable terms, thereby lowering barriers to entry. This approach aims to preserve market dynamism and innovation while ensuring content creators are compensated, preventing a future where technological progress is gatekept by a handful of powerful vertically integrated entities.