Trip Adler is the founder and CEO of Created by Humans, a new marketplace helping rights holders license their works for AI training, reference, and transformation. Before this, he spent 17 years building Scribd, pioneering book subscriptions and navigating complex copyright challenges. Now, he’s tackling one of the most urgent questions in AI: how to fairly compensate creators when AI models train on human work.
What you'll learn:
Why the future of AI and human creativity depends on solving copyright licensing
How Created by Humans is building the "Spotify for AI rights"
Why books are the starting point—and the most complicated use case—in AI licensing
The three types of AI rights: training, reference (RAG), and transformative use
Why authors—not publishers—hold the keys to AI rights for books
How lawsuits between AI companies and authors are shaping the market
The long game of building two-sided marketplaces in emerging industries
Why Trip is prioritizing standards over fast ARR growth
Lessons from Scribd and why founding a second company feels different
How AI-human collaboration could reshape the creative economy
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introducing Trip Adler and Created by Humans
(01:10) The explosion of startup culture since 2006
(03:26) Copyright in the AI era: the core problem
(07:13) Building a licensing marketplace for AI rights
(09:47) Author reactions: skepticism, enthusiasm, and early adoption
(10:48) Why this is like the music industry’s Napster-to-Spotify shift
(12:23) The future of licensing for video, music, and social media content
(15:34) The value hierarchy of data: books vs. tweets
(16:47) The three AI use cases: training, reference, and transformation
(20:32) Will AI replace authors—or collaborate with them?
(23:30) How AI might change the way we read and write books
(27:09) Lessons from Scribd: Why starting a second company feels different
(31:09) Avoiding short-term thinking and playing the long game
(35:25) Why founder journeys are marathons, not sprints
(37:40) Licensing clauses AI engineers need to read
(38:23) Authors reviving dead characters with AI
(39:13) Final thoughts: Building a creative economy that lasts
