Does AI Change How Much User Data Is Worth?

The value of personal data has always seemed elusive — especially when you’re thinking about your own.

While big data has long been a lucrative asset for tech giants, your individual dataset may feel commercially insignificant.

But with the rise of large language models (LLMs) and their reliance on massive amounts of training data, I can’t help but wonder:

Is my personal data finally becoming more valuable?

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Does AI Change How Much User Data Is Worth?

Traditionally, individual data hasn't held much commercial value on its own — it's aggregated data that drives the market.

Companies like Meta and Google have built empires by analysing millions of users' behaviour and turning that into targeted advertising gold. They monetise our collective digital footprint, but that value has never truly trickled down to individuals.

Now, though, the landscape is shifting. We're seeing the emergence of a market for consumer data specifically for training AI models.

Every day, a new announcement hits the headlines about AI companies securing deals with media platforms. Reddit scored a $60 million deal with Google, while Apple shelled out over $50 million for news publishing data.

These numbers seem arbitrary, don't they?

There isn’t a clear formula yet for pricing data. That said, companies like OpenAI are actively exploring ways to compensate people for their data contributions.

According to Mira Murati, OpenAI is tinkering with tools to measure the value a specific dataset adds to a model. This is tricky because it’s hard to quantify the impact of individual data points within massive AI models.

It’s clear AI companies recognise the need for a better solution to pricing data, and it’s just a matter of time before we see frameworks emerging.

With competition for high-quality training data intensifying, media platforms have realised they’re sitting on a goldmine, and we may soon see the data market mirror the sophistication of targeted marketing. The fresher and more unique the data, the more valuable it will become.

So, what does this mean for the value of my personal data? Well, it’s complicated. Yes, platforms like Reddit can now monetise my contributions in ways they couldn’t before, but if I tried to sell my data directly, it wouldn’t be worth much. Platforms still hold the lion’s share of the value.

However, change might be on the horizon. Users are beginning to push back. Look at StackOverflow, where contributors have called out platforms for using their posts to train models like ChatGPT without compensation.

This rebellion highlights that people are waking up to the fact that their data holds value, even if the platforms haven't yet figured out how to share the spoils.

The real question is whether platforms will ever compensate individual users with actual money. Honestly, I think it’s unlikely we’ll see widespread user payouts any time soon. Micropayments don’t seem feasible, and selling personal data for pocket change could feel like a race to the bottom.

Instead, what’s more interesting are models that allow individuals to band together. We’re already seeing startups like Vana, which creates user-owned data models, and Hive Mapper, which rewards users for contributing mapping data. These data collectives give people an ownership stake in the value they help create.

In the grand scheme, my individual data might not be worth much on its own. But as data collectives and user-owned models gain traction, we may finally see a future where users have a real stake in the AI economy — and can benefit financially from their contributions.

Not all costs are created equal..

Everything has a cost — yet not all costs are created equal.

To truly unlock opportunities, you need to understand the three types of costs:

Opportunity cost: Every choice means missing out on something else. If you pick one option, you’re giving up another.

Sunk cost: Just because you've invested in something doesn’t mean you're stuck with it. Your past investment is a gift from your former self, but if it no longer serves you, let it go.

Marginal cost: What’s the extra cost of one more action? Sometimes, the cost is zero (like watching one more show on Netflix), but other times it adds up.

Being aware of these costs doesn’t mean you need to be perfectly rational all the time — but being intentional with your decisions opens up more possibilities.

How do you weigh your decisions when it comes to these costs?

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