Governance in the Age of AI

Episode 2 of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Road to AIII puts the spotlight on something often overlooked: infrastructure isn’t neutral. It shapes the rules of the game.

In my closing conversation with WIPO’s senior policy officer Garrett Levin and fellow voice of reason Dani Deahl, we explored how copyright infrastructure must adapt to the realities of AI. This is not just about technology — it’s about the systems of attribution, licensing, and enforcement that decide who holds leverage and who gets left behind.

This builds on themes from earlier pieces like The AI Era (how generative systems reconfigure value and require new business models) and Tenets of the Music Business (why ownership and leverage are foundational). Together, they frame infrastructure not as plumbing, but as governance.

Three points stood out in the interview:

• AI is a spectrum. 100% machine-generated works should not be treated the same as AI-assisted creativity. The law and its infrastructure must recognize this nuance or risk flattening creative value.
• The “point of inference” is where trust begins. If detection and attribution aren’t built into the moment of creation, every downstream system — from licensing to royalty flows — inherits uncertainty. How will royalties actually make their way to the artist or voice talent?

• Infrastructure is a commercial loop, not just a compliance tool. If it only demonetizes, it fails. If it builds sustainable flows of value for human creatives, it unlocks resilience.

This is why the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Initiative (AIII) matters. The decisions we make now will set the conditions for whether AI destabilizes or empowers the music and creative industries.

Watch Episode 2 (our segment begins at ~48 minutes): https://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=88977

Learn more about WIPO’s AIII: https://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/2025/ai-infrastructure-interchange.html