The revolution of creator-owned AI
Breaking the traditional moat mentality
When I founded Bast AI, I made a promise to myself and to our future partners: We would not become another extractive AI company. I have watched, most of the time in horror, as the industry's giants built what they called "moats"—essentially barriers designed to trap value, data, and intellectual property within their walls. These moats range from revolting amounts of data and compute to addictive outrage-to-engage cycles that harvest data without our consent.
“The architects of digital addiction, lavishly compensated for colonizing consciousness through glowing rectangles, reveal our civilization's darkest bargain: trading tomorrow's human potential for today's algorithmic engagement—the medium isn't just the message; it's become the master.”
Claude 3.7 “channeling” Marshall McLuhan
So we are here, right now - at a pivotal moment in AI's evolution. The traditional moat mentality is crumbling, and rightfully so. AI is inherently social software - it thrives on interaction and collaboration. Yet the prevailing IP structures work against this nature, strangling innovation while consolidating power.
My unorthodox view as a woman leader in AI
As one of the few technical women in AI development who's also been trained as a business leader, I've witnessed both sides of the technology-business divide. What I discovered - decades ago - about how companies view technical team members fundamentally shook my understanding of the professional world.
The standard practice shocked me: businesses wrap developers in legal language that attempts to own every thought and idea that crosses their minds. I swear I have seen contracts that own the blood and breath of the code-writing humans. Does anyone remember the Code Monkey song by Jonathan Coulton? Companies claim ownership over creative output while struggling to find even one CTO to bring an AI product to market and deliver client value. The irony is palpable. Organizations are desperate for technical talent while simultaneously creating environments that stifle the creativity they need to succeed.
I've experienced this tension personally. With multiple patents to my name, I've experienced firsthand how the creation of IP should be—and indeed is—a collaboration, not a control mechanism. Yet I've also been forced to implement contractor documents that "protect" my company's interests, perpetuating the system I want to change.
Data sovereignty is non-negotiable.
At Bast AI, we've developed a fundamentally different approach. Data sovereignty isn't a marketing term—it's baked into our technical architecture. Your data remains yours, full stop.
I remember implementing our first local deployment solution. Our investors questioned the decision, arguing that data access was our potential "moat." I disagreed then, and I disagree now. Our value isn't in hoarding your data - it's in empowering you to extract unprecedented value from it while maintaining complete control.
Bast AI's breakthrough wasn't just technical—it was philosophical. By engineering systems with built-in lineage, provenance, and versioning within client-owned containers, we've created a pathway for truly creator-owned IP. You can't fabricate lineage—like compound interest, it must accumulate authentically over time, building value through each legitimate contribution.
Throughout my career implementing production systems, I've witnessed the profound human need for acknowledged ownership. I've been one of those developers who hid Easter eggs in code. I know engineers who embed their identities in system comments and have seen prompt engineers bury their names in instructions—these aren't acts of vanity but expressions of a fundamental desire for recognition.
Our Bast architecture acknowledges this human truth, making attribution overt rather than hidden.
When your data flows through our container system—deployed on your hardware or cloud tenant—there's no silent scraping, hidden training, or quiet monetization of your intellectual property. This transparency required us to engineer differently from the ground up, challenging industry norms that treat creator contributions as corporate assets rather than individual achievements. Now, I can witness developers finally receive proper attribution for their work, confirming that we've chosen the right path.
What's truly revolutionary about our approach is that we've finally put domain experts in the driver's seat. For too long, AI has been controlled by those who understand the technology but not the problems it needs to solve. This misalignment has been AI's most significant limitation. The truth is that we, as technically inclined humans, do not understand how to solve complex domain-specific problems with AI. Our expertise lies in preparing data and creating accessible interfaces—not knowing how a physician should diagnose a rare condition or how a climate scientist should model environmental changes.
The current generation of Generative AI models is a wholly accurate replica of industry experts' hubris—confidently wading deep into the domains they do not understand.
The Bast modality fundamentally shifts this power dynamic. We've engineered systems where domain experts—paramedics, nurses, patients, students, lawyers, scientists, and others—directly control the AI, manipulating data inputs and immediately seeing how outputs change. They can apply their hard-earned wisdom to guide the technology toward solutions that matter. This isn't just about user experience; it's about recognizing that only domain experts genuinely understand how this simultaneously terrifying and beautiful technology can be harnessed to solve real-world problems. By putting them in control, we've unlocked AI's potential to address challenges that technical experts alone could never even correctly identify, let alone solve.
Challenging the colonial mindset of IP ownership
Let's call this what it is: the notion that a worker's fruits of labor belong to "the man" who allows them to work is a colonial mindset that has no place in the 21st century. It's especially problematic in creative and technical fields where innovation thrives on freedom and ownership.
This mindset has harmed individual creators and is actively holding back companies and entire industries. The most talented AI developers want to work where their contributions are respected, recognized, and rewarded—not where their creativity becomes another company's "asset."By creating a system where we can showcase the evidence of lineage and provenance - that creator can show their work, and it is through this “compound interest” that value is organically understood.
As a woman who has navigated the complex worlds of business leadership and technical development, I see how this system particularly impacts underrepresented groups in tech. Traditional systems of control weren't built with variety in mind, and they continue to reinforce power structures that limit access and opportunity.
Explainability isn't just ethical - it's essential.
I've always been frustrated by the black-box nature of most AI systems. How can you truly own something you don't understand?
That's why we built transparency and explainability into every layer of Bast AI. Our deterministic, knowledge graph-based approach ensures you can trace every decision, insight, and recommendation back to its source. This isn't just about ethics—it's about giving you true ownership of your AI journey.
I've seen too many businesses implement AI solutions they don't understand, creating dependencies they can't escape. That's not partnership - that's captivity.
Redefining work-for-hire in the AI era
I remember when a potential client asked me point-blank, "If we hire you to build this, who owns it?" They were shocked when I said, "You do. 100%."
They were even more shocked when I told them I could help them patent what they needed. I have and can help other businesses obtain the very thing they need to formulate their useful and novel systems and ensure the protection of those domain-specific solutions.
The standard in our industry is predatory. AI vendors routinely claim ownership over everything they touch. They'll build you a custom solution and then claim rights to the core technology. They'll promise partnership but deliver dependency.
At Bast AI, our work-for-hire agreements are crystal clear: you own what you pay for. We maintain ownership of our core technology, but your customizations, implementations, and specific solutions belong to you.
A new vision for technical talent
What happens when we liberate technical talent from these restrictive ownership models? We create environments where innovation flourishes, the best minds want to work, and collaboration generates exponentially greater value than control ever could.
This isn't just about treating developers better—though that matters deeply to me. It's about recognizing that the old model fundamentally misunderstands how innovation works. Creative technical work can't be extracted or commanded; it must be cultivated and respected.
As someone who has experienced IP development from all angles, I believe the future belongs to organizations that understand this truth.
Join the creator-owned revolution
I founded Bast AI to challenge the status quo, prove that AI can be powerful and equitable, and that innovation and ownership coexist.
Your data, models, insights, and future—this isn't just our promise—it's our business model, technical architecture, and vision for what AI should be.
The old moats are crumbling. Join us in building something better in their place - an AI ecosystem that works for creators, not against them, and recognizes that true innovation comes from liberation, not limitation.