Source: Meta is paying several top creators millions of dollars each over multiple years for nonexclusive use of their likeness in its text-based AI characters
Sahil Patel / The Information :
Context & Ripple Effects
Meta had already turned recognizable people into AI products: its earlier celebrity AI rollout used filmed representations of 28 people. This report clarifies that creator likeness rights were also being bought on multiyear terms for text-based characters.
The arrangement extends Meta’s prior use of payments to shape its creator supply, including a BuzzFeed deal to generate creator content and train online creators. It matters because identity, not just content production, is becoming a licensable AI input.
First-order effects
- The participating creators receive multiyear compensation while Meta gains permission to deploy their likenesses in its text-based AI characters.
- Nonexclusive terms preserve creators’ ability to license their identities elsewhere, rather than tying their AI use to Meta alone.
Second-order effects
- Other AI-character platforms may need to compete for recognizable creators with similar licensing terms, raising the importance of contractual rights over simple promotional partnerships.
- Creators and their representatives gain a clearer commercial model for negotiating how an AI character can use a person’s identity, including duration and exclusivity.
Third-order effects
- If such arrangements become routine, AI-character products could develop a formal talent-rights market in which likeness licensing is a recurring input cost and source of differentiation.
- Nonexclusive licensing may keep that market contestable: platforms can acquire recognizable identities, but cannot necessarily prevent rivals from doing the same.
The trend: AI companies are commercializing human identity as a licensed input for conversational products, alongside the licensing of creator-made content.