At AI Creator Day 2026, the IAB put the line between AI-assisted and AI-generated work squarely with the audience.
“It comes down to just linking it back to consumers and whether or not consumers feel it’s deceptive,” said James Douglas, vice president of the IAB’s Experience Center for the creator economy and gaming.
Douglas joined Adobe’s Karen Robinson and 11:11 Media’s Rebecca Grone on a panel moderated by What’s Trending founder and CEO Shira Lazar.
Robinson, Adobe’s senior vice president and deputy general counsel, said the debate isn’t new. Early courts denied copyright to photographs because the camera did the work. Adobe now backs Content Credentials to track provenance and a proposed Creator Act to protect artists whose style is copied for sale. “Simply using AI as a tool should not mean that your art gets labeled as AI-generated,” she said.
Grone, head of impact at 11:11 Media, focused on deepfake abuse. Her team works with Paris Hilton on legislation from the Take It Down Act to the Defiance Act, which would let victims sue.
Takedowns alone don’t solve it, she argued. “Why should the man who is victimizing women and girls across the globe get to remain anonymous?” Grone asked. “Accountability and justice is being able to hold the person that created and caused you harm accountable.”
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TheWrap and What’s Trending presented AI Creator Day 2026 at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles on Sept. 29. Wispr Flow was the official voice partner, and its Notetaker captured the quotes in this story.
