Essentially, the senators are saying that a handful of major companies control the market for monetizing original content via advertising, and that those companies are rigging that market in their favor. Either you consent to having your articles, recipes, stories, and podcast transcripts indexed and used as raw material for an AI, or you’re cut out of the loop.

The letter goes on to ask the FTC and DOJ to investigate whether these new methods are “a form of exclusionary conduct or an unfair method of competition in violation of the antitrust laws.”