The 28-year-old founders of TollBit, a New York-based startup that is just six months old, believe we are currently in the AI equivalent of the “Napster days,” where companies are taking data from the internet without compensating the creators. They aim to be the iTunes of the AI world by creating a marketplace connecting AI companies with high-quality data from publishers. By paying publishers on an ongoing basis for their data, TollBit hopes to incentivize AI companies to use fresh, reliable content. Despite initial success with onboarding publishers and attracting investors, the model remains hypothetical until money changes hands between AI companies and publishers. The founders also emphasize the importance of compensating publishers to ensure the quality and accuracy of AI-generated content. Overall, TollBit’s mission is to create a fair economic model that benefits both publishers and AI companies in the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence.
