Beyond the Paycheck: Rethinking Intellectual Property in the Age of AI

Beyond the Paycheck: Rethinking Intellectual Property in the Age of AI

When I first accepted a role at a major edtech company, the "Intellectual Property" (IP) clause in my offer letter felt like boilerplate legal jargon. It wasn't until I was deep in the trenches, producing over 2,000 hours of K-12 academic content for learners across 12 countries, that the reality of that clause hit home.

I realized then that my job description was, in essence, a trade: my intellect in exchange for a salary. Every video lesson where I appeared on camera, every slide deck I designed, and every script I wrote belonged entirely to the company. As I transitioned from creator to manager, leading teams to churn out even more content, I became intimately familiar with the concept of ownership in digital production.

Now, as a founder navigating founder agreements and investor relations, the stakes have shifted. I’ve learned that IP is more than just a clause; it is the currency of our digital economy.

Insights from the Frontlines and the Literature

This week, diving into the intersection of IP, privacy, and ethics has forced me to reflect on my journey. Whether you are an individual creator or a founder, these readings offer a sobering look at how our digital footprint—our "words, images, sounds, and clicks," as Dennen (2016) so aptly puts it—is increasingly being commodified.

Here are a few key takeaways that bridge my experience with current academic discourse:

1. The Myth of "Creator Ownership."

In my edtech days, I understood that my work was "work-for-hire." However, as Dennen (2016) explores, the ownership of digital course artifacts is complex. When we produce content, we are often just one node in a larger network of data. The "transience" of technology means that the content we create today might be repurposed, AI-scraped, or archived in ways we never imagined when we signed those initial contracts.

2. Generative AI: From Borrowing to Stealing

The recent work by Chesterman (2025) on generative AI sharpens my focus on my current life as a founder. The mantra "good models borrow, great models steal" is no longer just a catchy phrase; it’s an economic reality. As we build, we have to grapple with the ethics of training models on existing IP. If my edtech content was used to train an AI, did I consent to that? Does the company own the right to use my likeness to train a machine-generated clone of myself?

3. The Potential of Open Educational Resources (OER)

Despite the rigid nature of corporate IP, there is an alternative path. Caswell et al. (2008) and Word and Dennen (2021) remind us of the power of OER. There is a profound ethical argument for making knowledge accessible. As I look toward my own company's future, I am wrestling with the balance between protecting my own intellectual assets and contributing to the open knowledge ecosystem that allows global education to thrive.

Looking Forward

My career path has taken me from a corporate content creator to a founder, and through it all, the question of agency has remained constant. Who owns your voice? Who owns your likeness? And in an era where AI can synthesize both, how do we protect our creative contributions while still participating in a global, collaborative digital space?

These readings have reinforced one thing for me: Intellectual property is no longer just about who holds the copyright. It’s about who holds the power to shape the future of learning. As I continue to build, I am committed to navigating this space not just as a business owner, but as an advocate for the ethical stewardship of digital knowledge.

How do you reconcile the need to protect your intellectual property as a creator with the broader, often competing, need to contribute to open and accessible knowledge in the digital age?

Comments

  1. MnLVJune 10, 2026 at 8:01 PM

    Those are powerful observations and a sad reality as we rush forward with a technology that has inadequate boundaries and regulations. I was jarred by Chesterman's discussion on whether AI systems are being trained on human-created material in ways that allow them to compete against the same humans whose work made the models valuable. I don't want to go tin foil hat here, but it makes me wonder: The power seems to be in the hands of the data holders. If the human creators are eventually squeezed out, then a much smaller group of stakeholders would have the power to, as you said, shape the future of learning. What could possibly go wrong in that scenario??

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hannah LatiffJune 14, 2026 at 12:40 PM

    I really enjoyed reading this! Your perspective added a unique layer to the conversation, especially with your experience in edtech and content creation. I also appreciated how you highlighted the balance between protecting creative work and making knowledge accessible. It's definitely a timely topic, and I think these conversations are only going to become more important moving forward.

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