According to CoinDesk, actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt argued in a July 2023 op-ed that artificial intelligence should compensate creators if it uses their work. This idea aligns with the intellectual property-focused blockchain Story Protocol, which is gaining significant investment traction.

On Wednesday, PIP Labs, the initial core contributor behind Story Protocol, announced an $80 million Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The funding highlights the growing interest in protecting intellectual property in the age of AI.

AI companies have extensively used web content to train their large language models (LLMs), leading to legal disputes between creatives and tech giants like OpenAI. The New York Times is currently in a legal battle with OpenAI over copyright infringement allegations, while YouTubers have accused Nvidia (NVDA) of unjustly enriching itself by using scraped content to build a video model. Meanwhile, News Corp, owner of the Wall Street Journal, has struck a deal with OpenAI to license its content for LLM training, valued at over $250 million.

PIP Labs co-founder and CEO SY Lee emphasized the importance of original intellectual property (IP) for AI model development. He criticized AI companies for using data without consent and not sharing the benefits with original creators. Story Protocol aims to address this issue by converting IP into modular and programmable assets, known as 'IP Legos,' which can be licensed, managed, and monetized through smart contracts on a blockchain.

Lee explained that Story Protocol allows creators to embed licensing and royalty terms directly into their IP, ensuring that anyone using it must adhere to their rules. This approach empowers creators to maintain control over their data and assert their rights. Lee highlighted the significance of this debate for the entertainment industry, noting that the current state of AI undermines the incentive to create original IP.

The project represents a novel use case for blockchain technology, moving beyond traditional DeFi applications. Lee criticized the current trend in the blockchain space, where many projects focus on minor technical improvements without addressing broader issues.

Story Protocol's mainnet launch is expected later this year, with more details anticipated during the Korea Blockchain Week in Seoul in September.