Dr. James Smith

Stories

The race to build AI's payment layer

As of May 2026: Joining Cloudflare

For two years, AI companies have trained their models on web content without paying for most of it. That era may be ending.

Updated May 21

Notable Quotes

"We started Human Native with the goal of getting Generative AI out of its Napster era. We believe that creators should have control, compensation and credit when their work is used to power AI products." — Cloudflare acquisition announcement, January 2026

from The race to build AI's payment layer · Updated May 21

"I'm the CEO of a two-month-old company and have been able to get meetings with CEOs of 160-year-old publishing companies." — TechCrunch, June 2024

from The race to build AI's payment layer · Updated May 21