White House hosts Creator Economy Conference to talk AI, privacy

The White House hosted 100 digital content creators and industry professionals Wednesday to speak with key officials about the “creator economy,” a sector that has boomed as social media platforms make it easier for users to monetize their content.

President Joe Biden appeared at the Creator Economy Conference, the first event ever hosted by the White House’s Office of Digital Strategy.

“You are the future,” Biden told the influencers in the White House’s Indian Treaty Room, speaking without a teleprompter. “You are the new possibilities. You are the breakthrough in how we communicate.”

“That’s why I’ve invited you to the White House, because I’m looking for a job,” he joked.

Other top officials, including deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo and White House domestic policy advisor Neera Tanden, are also attending the conference.

They are hearing influencers’ concerns about their industry’s most pressing issues, including artificial intelligence technology, fair pay, data privacy and the impact of social media on mental health.

“These events ensure creators are given a voice in D.C. that more traditional entertainment and media groups have had for decades,” Franklin Graves, a tech policy lawyer attending the conference, told CNBC.

“The law and policy issues facing creators, brands, and platforms in the creator economy are much more nuanced and often unaddressed by existing regulations or agency actions,” Graves said.

The content-creation industry has exploded in recent years, with the rise of influencer marketing, e-commerce and social media sites that enable creators to monetize their work on digital platforms.

Goldman Sachs in 2023 estimated that the creator economy represented a roughly $250 billion revenue opportunity, and that it was set to grow to roughly $480 billion by 2027.

Roughly 50 million people globally work as content creators, Goldman estimated. The U.S. Census Bureau does not track social media as a separate industry.

As the content-creation sector grows, it has posed challenges for lawmakers and White House officials when it comes to regulating Big Tech, social media and AI.

TikTok, the Chinese-owned video-sharing app and one of the fastest-growing social media platforms, has been at the center of much of that controversy.

U.S. officials have grown concerned that the Chinese government’s business practices allow it to solicit data from TikTok, posing a privacy threat to American users.

In April, the president signed into law a bill that would require TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the platform within the next year, or else face a nationwide ban in the U.S.

Biden almost immediately faced backlash from TikTok and some of its creators who rely on the platform as income.

In May, a group of TikTok creators sued the U.S. government to challenge that potential ban.