I am following a similar mental path. I feel like the AI companies should be paying some sort of tariff on their output, going towards everyone on the planet who contributed anything at all. I don't think you can account for it more finely than that.

Yup, it feel similar to mining. The models are a transformation of the underlying content. The content is owned by “us”. A mining company can come in and transform rock into iron but it owes something to the grantors of the mining rights.

There is certainly a contribution in improving how the body of work is represented but we treat the “AI” as the smarts, when really it’s a lens on the collective knowledge we have built. You can make the lens better, bit not claim ownership of the body of work. Right now that’s what’s happening, with a few edge cases for artists and publishers.