As generative AI reshapes industries, one critical problem looms large: intellectual property (IP) in the age of AI. AI systems depend on vast datasets—text, images, videos, and more—but much of this data is intellectual property.

Yet, most IP holders are left without compensation or control when their works are used. The recent New York Times vs. OpenAI lawsuit underscores this growing tension, where prominent IP holders are pushing back against the unlicensed use of their work in AI training models. The legal and ethical challenges surrounding IP in AI development have never been more urgent.

Story, headquartered in Silicon Valley near Stanford University, sits at the heart of a global innovation hub surrounded by leading AI companies and prominent Layer 1 blockchains like Aptos and Sui. Story is a purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain designed to tokenize intellectual property into programmable digital assets.

By empowering IP holders to tokenize, protect, share, and monetize their ideas, Story creates a secure foundation for AI-driven innovation and decentralized collaboration as recently showcased by its integration with Stability AI, making it the first blockchain to integrate with a major LLM. Story has attracted unparalleled investor confidence, raising $140 million to date, with Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) leading three consecutive funding rounds for the company—a first in blockchain history.

In a recent rare video interview with a leading tech Youtube Channel EO, Chris Dixon, founder and managing director of a16z crypto, explained his thesis behind leading Story’s funding rounds three times. He warned of the catastrophic impacts AI can have on the internet’s creative economy if a blockchain solution like Story didn’t step in to compensate creators and data owners: “Why would I pay an illustrator when I can just goto Midjourney and create an illustration? A lot of these creators will not have an economic model.”

Story operates at the intersection of AI and blockchain technology, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Intellectual property is, by many accounts, one of the largest asset class in the world, representing over $61.9 trillion in value across industries like media, technology, and pharmaceuticals (Brand Finance Global Intangible Finance Tracker 2023). Everything from brand identities and characters to codebases and proprietary research is IP. Yet, this massive asset class remains one of the least efficiently monetized, leaving IP holders, businesses, investors and innovators struggling to protect or capitalize on their contributions in an increasingly AI-driven economy.

AI’s Dependence on Data—and the IP Problem It Creates

AI models like Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion and OpenAI’s GPT require immense amounts of training data to function. Much of this data comes from copyrighted works, often scraped without permission or payment. The New York Times vs. OpenAI lawsuit not just another legal dispute—it is a defining moment for intellectual property in the AI era.The Times has alleged that OpenAI unlawfully used its articles to train AI models without a license, setting the stage for a legal showdown that could shape how intellectual property is handled in the AI age.

The battle between these two monolithic institutions—one representing old media, the other representing new AI—exposes the inadequacies of the current IP system. The Times accuses OpenAI of unlawfully using its articles to train AI models, sparking a legal battle that exemplifies the breakdown of traditional IP frameworks. This “war of all against all” over human knowledge reveals the systemic inefficiencies of an outdated IP system that still relies on manual contracts and centralized control.

Despite IP’s estimated $61.9 trillion value, the infrastructure to monetize, grow and tokenize these assets is stuck in the past. Traditional licensing methods rely on lengthy, manual processes, making it nearly impossible to scale for AI’s massive and rapid data consumption. As AI evolves, the need for robust IP frameworks that protect IP holders while enabling innovation has become critical.

Story: The World’s IP Blockchain

Story provides the infrastructure needed to address this bottleneck. The protocol allows IP holders, businesses and investors to tokenize their IP as digital assets, making them easy to track, transfer and monetize. By combining blockchain technology with a specialized legal framework, Story ensures that IP holders of every kind maintain control over their works while offering new opportunities for monetization.

With Story’s programmable IP assets, rights holders can specify whether their assets are available for AI training, commercial use, or restricted entirely. This ensures that the data feeding AI models is legally compliant and fairly compensates original IP holders. Unlike traditional IP systems, Story’s blockchain-based approach offers real-time enforcement of rights and eliminates inefficiencies in making it tradable, and scalable for AI’s vast data needs.

The integration between Story and Stability AI illustrates the protocol’s potential. Stability AI, known for its open-source Stable Diffusion model, uses Story’s infrastructure to source legally authorized datasets. By tokenizing and organizing IP on-chain, Story creates a curated pool of enforceable data for training AI while providing IP holders with transparent revenue streams. This collaboration bridges the gap between AI developers and IP holders, transforming tokenized IP into a sustainable marketplace that protects rights holders while fueling AI innovation. In an era where IP is emerging as the critical asset class for AI, Story offers a transformative solution by combining blockchain’s transparency with a robust legal framework.

The New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI highlights the urgent need for infrastructure like Story. The conventional view of the New York Times vs. OpenAI lawsuit is that it is simply another legal battle. This interpretation misses the point entirely. This case represents the larger struggle at the heart of the IP and AI debate: who will control and monetize human knowledge in the digital age?

Story inscribed the opening line of the lawsuit into its genesis block not to take sides, but to document the inflection point we are experiencing. The lawsuit symbolizes the inadequacies of a system where traditional IP holders struggle to keep pace with AI’s exponential growth, while AI companies extract value without compensation. The zero-sum battle between incumbents like the Times and AI innovators like OpenAI highlights the urgent need for a third path—one that transcends centralized gatekeeping altogether.

It demonstrates how AI companies’ reliance on unlicensed data creates risks for both developers and IP holders. Without clear frameworks for licensing and compensation, the AI industry faces a future of constant legal battles, stifling innovation.

Story provides a proactive solution by bringing IP on-chain: the protocol prevents these conflicts before they arise. It ensures thatIP holders are fairly compensated and that AI developers have access to the data they need without fear of legal repercussions.

Story’s ability to tackle these challenges has earned it significant backing from some of the biggest names in tech and finance. Since its inception, the company has raised over $140 million across multiple rounds, achieving a valuation of $2.25 billion. Most notably, a16z has led all three funding rounds—an unprecedented vote of confidence in the protocol’s potential.

This level of support signals that Story’s approach to IP isn’t just a theoretical solution—it’s a necessary one. As IP becomes the currency of the AI economy, Story’s goal is for its tokenized infrastructure to become the industry standard.

With intellectual property representing $61.9 trillion in value, it is clear that IP isn’t just a creative asset—it’s the engine of the global intelligence economy. Yet, without modern infrastructure, this massive asset class remains underutilized and at risk.

The future of IP will not be defined by lawsuits, but by the code that transforms ideas into programmable assets