Blockchain Startup Story Raises $80 Million to Protect Intellectual Property From AI

Blockchain startup Story raised $80 million in a Series B funding round.

The San Francisco-based firm announced the financing Wednesday (Aug. 21) on social platform X, saying it would use the money to help it build a blockchain designed to prevent artificial intelligence companies from unwarranted use of creators’ intellectual property (IP), which Story referred to as “one of the world’s biggest asset classes.”

1/ Announcing $140M in total fundraising to build Story, the World’s IP Blockchain. pic.twitter.com/9M3tqqYcvO

— Story (꧁IP꧂) (@StoryProtocol) August 21, 2024

“Training data, AI models, memes, UGC videos, game assets, character traits and more are all IP,” the company said in the post on X. “Everything is IP.”

With the advent of AI, IP has only grown in value, the company added, saying that it serves as the foundational input for training AI large language models.

“Put simply, without IP, AI is likely to hit a ceiling,” the post said. “Story is creating a win-win future where creators can both protect and grow their IP in the age of AI.”

The company said its technology gives creators control over their IP, letting them set the economic terms for how AI can use their property. It can also protect IP by embedding terms connected to it into smart contracts. These are self-executing agreements written on blockchains designed to run without outside approval or human input once conditions are met.

The funding round brings Story’s value to $2.25 billion, CNBC reported Wednesday.

PYMNTS examined whether AI-generated content would “run up against a brick wall” of copyright law last month in an interview with Christian Mammen, partner and chair of Womble Bond Dickinson’s U.S. Intellectual Property Litigation Group.

“There are a lot of ways that the existing doctrines can be applied to this new technology,” Mammen said.

The modern concept of IP has been around for hundreds of years, although it wasn’t until the late 20th century that it became part of most of the world’s legal systems. As AI evolves, IP and copyright concepts like fair use might need to adapt to effectively handle generative AI-related cases.

“I don’t know that we need a full-blown overhaul of the laws just to accommodate this new technology,” Mammen said. “But there may be some places where it’s worth having a conversation about tinkering with the law or modifying the laws in certain ways.”

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