Artificial intelligence giants are launching a "war for video data," with companies such as OpenAI and Google purchasing unreleased videos from content creators for AI model training. This opens up new revenue streams for content creators, especially filmmakers with large amounts of unreleased material. The prices of videos of different qualities vary. High-quality 4K videos, drone shots and 3D animation materials are more expensive, up to US$1 to US$4 per minute; ordinary unused videos are sold between US$1 and US$2 per minute. between. To simplify copyright issues, these companies work with specialized agencies to ensure the legality of transactions and the protection of creators’ rights.
Recently, it has been reported that artificial intelligence giants such as OpenAI and Google are purchasing unreleased videos directly from content creators to train their AI models. The companies pay between $1 and $4 per minute, with higher prices in particular for high-quality 4K video, drone footage and 3D animation footage.
Common unused video content from platforms like YouTube or TikTok sells for between $1 and $2 per minute, with such transactions often reaching thousands of dollars.
To handle the complexities of video rights, these companies work with specialized agencies such as Troveo AI and Calliope Networks. Marty Pesis, CEO of Troveo, said that almost all companies that are developing video models have cooperated with or are in negotiations with them, and they have paid more than $5 million to creators so far.
According to Dan Levitt of Wasserman Agency, the current market situation has been described as an arms race for video content. He believes this will be a lucrative window for licensing deals over the next few years, but cautions that the opportunity won't exist forever.
The signed contracts contain protective clauses ensuring that the AI companies cannot create digital copies of the creators, reproduce specific scenes from their channels or use those videos in a way that could harm the creators' reputations. Along with purchasing videos directly, Google also recently launched a new feature that allows creators to control whether AI companies can use their public videos for training.
Potential licensors include more than 17 companies, including OpenAI, Meta and Microsoft. Since YouTube prohibits unauthorized scraping of content, this makes them an ideal intermediary to profit from future licensing deals.
AI companies are eager to acquire this video data to build their video generators such as Sora and Veo. However, some researchers believe these massive video data sets could help create a kind of world simulator. Although this theory remains scientifically controversial, they believe that exposure to large amounts of video helps AI systems develop a deeper understanding of physical reality, thereby improving their generalization capabilities.
This trend has brought unexpected benefits to content creators. Many filmmakers produce hundreds of hours of footage each year, and this unreleased content, which once had little value, can now make real money by selling these cut-offs.
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Companies like OpenAI and Google are buying creators’ unpublished videos for $1 to $4 per minute to use as training for AI models.
High-quality videos (such as 4K and drone footage) command higher bids, while regular unused content sells for between $1 and $2.
The contract includes protection clauses to ensure the rights of creators, and Google also allows creators to control the AI's permission to use their public videos.
All in all, AI companies’ demand for video data has given rise to a new market, bringing new profit opportunities to content creators, while also triggering more discussions about data copyright and AI ethics. In the future, this will become an area of continued development and worthy of attention.