Why Medium is HIDING from AI | E2179
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
This episode features three fascinating companies navigating the intersection of AI, intellectual property, and innovation. First, Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine discusses the company's adoption of Really Simple Licensing (RSL), a new standard aimed at creating fair compensation for content creators whose work powers AI systems. (04:15) Medium has joined forces with Reddit, Yahoo, and other major platforms to collectively negotiate with AI companies, with all licensing revenue going directly back to writers. Next, Human Native CEO Dr. James Smith explains why his company pivoted away from building an AI content marketplace after discovering fundamental communication barriers between rights holders and AI companies. (27:57) Finally, Telo Trucks CEO Jason Marks showcases the MT1, an adorable mini electric truck designed specifically for urban environments that packs full truck capabilities into a footprint smaller than a Mini Cooper. (47:38)
- The episode explores the evolving economics of content in the AI era, the challenges of monetizing intellectual property, and innovative approaches to electric vehicle design for urban markets.
Speakers
Tony Stubblebine
CEO of Medium, the popular writing platform that reached 1 million paid subscribers and achieved cash flow positivity in 2024. Tony has been leading Medium's efforts to protect writers' interests in the AI era and was one of the first executives to sign onto the Really Simple Licensing standard.
Dr. James Smith
Co-founder and CEO of Human Native, a UK-based startup originally focused on creating an AI content marketplace. A former product manager at Google and DeepMind, James has pivoted the company toward helping organizations better understand and utilize their content assets through AI-powered search and analysis tools.
Jason Marks
Co-founder and CEO of Telo Trucks, an electric vehicle startup building mini trucks for urban environments. With a background in automotive safety and autonomous driving systems, Jason previously worked on safety systems for some of the first electric pickup trucks to come to market.
Key Takeaways
Building Collective Bargaining Power Is Essential for Fair AI Compensation
Tony Stubblebine emphasizes that individual companies cannot effectively negotiate with AI giants alone - they need coalitions. (07:22) Medium joined RSL because they recognized that "we're not Facebook or Meta... we don't quite have that heft." The key insight is that AI companies will only come to the negotiating table when faced with credible force from a unified group of content providers who can collectively restrict access to training data. This approach mirrors successful labor organizing tactics - individual workers have little power, but organized workers can demand fair compensation.
AI Search Economics Fundamentally Break Traditional Web Traffic Models
While AI search results do send some traffic back to original sources, the exchange rate is dramatically unfavorable. (12:32) Stubblebine reveals that the traffic exchange is "probably worth giving up like a 100 clicks to one" compared to traditional search. Even though AI-referred traffic converts to paid subscribers at 4x the normal rate, the total volume is so low that it doesn't compensate for the lost traffic. This creates an unsustainable model where content creators lose their primary traffic source without adequate replacement revenue.
Technical Solutions Alone Cannot Bridge Philosophical Divides
Human Native's pivot reveals a crucial lesson about marketplace businesses in contentious sectors. (28:00) Dr. Smith discovered that rights holders view their work as "content" with emotional value requiring respect and editorial control, while AI companies see it as "data" with measurable performance metrics. After 15 months of attempting to translate between these worldviews, the company realized that being a middleman in ideologically charged negotiations wasn't playing to their technical strengths and required different skill sets than building technology products.
Urban Vehicle Design Requires Rethinking Fundamental Assumptions
Telo Trucks demonstrates how removing traditional constraints enables radical innovation. (50:40) By eliminating the massive engine block that dominates traditional truck front-ends, Jason Marks was able to redesign the entire vehicle architecture. The result is a truck with full crew-cab and work capabilities packaged into a footprint smaller than a Mini Cooper. This shows how electric powertrains don't just replace engines - they enable completely new approaches to vehicle packaging and urban mobility.
Market Validation Often Comes From Workaround Behaviors
The strongest evidence for Telo's market opportunity comes from what people are already doing to solve the problem. (60:22) Marks points out that 10,000 Japanese K-trucks were imported to the US last year under the 25-year rule - meaning consumers are spending significant money and effort to import used, non-road-legal vehicles because no domestic alternative exists. When customers are willing to jump through regulatory hoops and accept compromised solutions, it signals strong latent demand for a proper product addressing that need.
Statistics & Facts
- Medium's AI-referred traffic converts to paid subscribers at 4x the normal rate, but the overall traffic volume from AI search is dramatically lower - approximately 100 traditional clicks are worth one AI summary citation. (12:59)
- 10,000 Japanese K-trucks were imported to the US in the previous year, making them the most imported vehicle from Japan under the 25-year rule, demonstrating significant latent demand for small trucks. (60:22)
- 3 million trucks are sold in downtown cities every year in the US, representing Telo's target market for urban-capable pickup trucks. (59:50)
