This new white paper argues for interventions to ensure the sustainability of the information ecosystem in the age of generative AI. Authored by Paul Keller, the paper builds on Open Future’s ongoing work on Public AI and on AI and creative labour, and proposes measures aimed at ensuring a healthy and equitable digital knowledge commons.
Rather than focusing on the rights of individual creators or the infringement debates that dominate current policy discourse, the paper frames generative AI as a new cultural and social technology—one that is rapidly reshaping how societies access, produce, and value information. It identifies two major structural risks: the growing concentration of control over knowledge, and the hollowing out of the institutions and economies that sustain human information production.
To counter these risks, the paper calls for the development of public AI infrastructures and a redistributive mechanism based on a levy on commercial AI systems trained on publicly available information. The proceeds would support not only creators and rightholders, but also public service media, cultural heritage institutions, open content platforms, and the development of Public AI systems.
Four Key Dimensions of AI’s Impact on Information Ecosystems
The paper develops four key arguments:
- AI’s impact on information is still underestimated—especially regarding control over access (information policy) and the commodification of the knowledge commons (economic sustainability).
- Public AI models and infrastructures are urgently needed, supported through public funding and governed in the public interest.
- A broad understanding of the information ecosystem is essential, one that recognises the diverse actors contributing to the digital commons.
- Economic sustainability requires redistribution beyond copyright, via a levy on commercial AI systems to channel revenue back to those who sustain the information ecosystem.
This paper argues that ensuring a sustainable information ecosystem in the age of generative AI requires structural interventions that go beyond existing legal frameworks. It calls for a new deal: one that recognises the public value embedded in AI systems and ensures that those who produce, preserve, and share knowledge are fairly supported. Embedding such a redistributive logic into the foundations of our digital infrastructure is essential to prevent the emergence of a new generation of information gatekeepers and to maintain the pluralistic, democratic character of the digital public sphere.
