Pippa, a text-to-video AI startup, is trying to win over artists who have long accused generative AI companies of training models on their work without permission or payment. Rather than scraping art without consent, Pippa pays artists directly whenever a subscriber generates an image or video clip in a style derived from that artist's work, positioning itself as an ethical alternative in a field dominated by companies accused of theft. Cofounders Hogan Shrum and Sean Wright hope this approach will both attract customers and prove that AI firms can build viable products without stealing from creators, though the company still faces scepticism given it uses the same imperfect underlying models as its competitors.

The payouts themselves are modest: artists earn $0.005 per image and $0.003 per second of video generated, plus a share of a royalty pool funded by 5% of Pippa's subscription revenue, which ranges from $14.99 to $99.99 a month. The company compares its model to Spotify's royalty system, a comparison likely to raise eyebrows given how many musicians consider Spotify's payouts inadequate. Wright likened the current AI landscape to the early days of Napster, arguing that just as the music industry eventually found ways to compensate artists fairly, AI companies can do the same rather than relying on uncompensated use of creative work.