Now it’s all about the tuna
Ok, now millions have jumped on the “personal chatbot” opportunity created by the OpenAI marketplace.
With value now shifting to the unique, specific content sitting at the core of every knowledge-based offering (rather than its underlying structure or querying/consumption interface), it only makes sense that we all direct our attention to protecting the creative and labor work going into it — as well as to the personal data it contains.
In other words, we have commoditized the bread in the sandwich, and now it’s all about the tuna.
Protecting content will result in stronger awareness of copyright and (where available) database protection. But it will also lead to the proliferation of paywalls and walled gardens of all sizes, widespread blocking of AI bots (just like major newspapers have done with ChatGPT’s), and a sort of “Anti-SEO” movement preventing Google and other search engines from indexing our own creative treasures.
In other words, the new possibilities may tip the balance in favor of exclusivity rather than discoverability, thus shifting the power over distribution to the application layer and away from Google search. But it will also decrease the value of the catch-all mammoths (ChatGPT, Bard) in favor of their minions.
