Uncanny Valley | WIRED BIG INTV: Matthew Prince Wants AI Companies to Pay for Their Sins
Sep 16, 2025
Matthew Prince, Co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare, discusses the need for AI companies to compensate creators while addressing content scraping issues. He shares insights on internet security and the transformative impact of AI on business models. The conversation also touches on the evolution of media in the digital age, including the challenges faced by content creators and innovative tools designed to ensure fair compensation. Additionally, Prince reflects on how internet policies evolve and the ramifications of tech-driven changes on society.
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First Startup Was A Magnificent Failure
- Matthew Prince described his first startup as a "magnificent failure" that burned through funding and lacked product-market fit.
- That early failure hooked him on startups and taught him valuable lessons for later ventures.
Free Tier Built The Product
- Cloudflare began by offering a stripped-down firewall for free to gather valuable data for larger customers.
- Solving problems for that free tier expanded the product into today's broader internet-security and performance platform.
Answer Engines Break The Traffic Model
- The web was never truly free; platforms historically paid creators by sending monetizable traffic.
- AI 'answer engines' collapse that traffic model by summarizing content instead of directing clicks to publishers.