51吃瓜网

Eric Zhou

Questrom School of Business, Boston University

Generative AI and Creative Markets: Supply-side Responses to AI Disruption & Data Governance

Date: Thursday, December 11, 2025
Time: 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM EST
Location: Bronfman Building, Room 245

All are cordially invited to attend.

Abstract

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has sparked debate about its impacts on creative markets, echoing concerns raised following the advent of Adobe Photoshop, which incited fears of labor displacement. However, those earlier innovations spurred new artistic genres and, ultimately, market expansion. We examine how digital creators respond to the emergence of AI tools and consequent data governance concerns, and how these choices reshape competition in creative markets. Using data from one of the largest industry art platforms, we find that AI-assisted creators intensify portfolio-building activities to strengthen their labor market position while creators sensitive to data governance, i.e., who opt out of serving AI training datasets, withdraw from portfolio competition. To understand how creators strategically adapt their portfolios in response to competitive disruption, we leverage Visual-Concept Modeling, a multimodal feature extraction approach for characterizing prototypical artifact types based on visual and conceptual elements. We identify a concentration of homogenized content, specifically character concept art, driven by AI adoption, while AI-sensitive creators, particularly freelancers and new entrants, reduce production in AI-dominated genres without substituting for other artifact types. These findings suggest that the allowance of AI and risk of creators' work being appropriated for AI training may undermine creators' incentives to participate in the market, highlighting the urgent need for policy clarity to foster the long-term sustainability of creative ecosystems.