What is AI training data?
AI training data is the material models learn from. As public web data is exhausted and scraping faces legal pressure, training data is increasingly licensed from companies.
The basics
An AI model learns by processing enormous amounts of example data. The quality, legality and relevance of that training data largely determine what the model can do.
The three sources
- Public web data — largely exhausted and legally contested (Epoch AI).
- Synthetic data — generated by models, with documented limits.
- Licensed data — purchased with provenance, rights and consent.
Why the third is growing
Reported licensing deals — from Reddit's $203 million in disclosed contracts to publisher deals reported at up to $250 million — show the market shifting toward licensed sources.
What this means for partners
Companies with 50+ full-time employees at peak hold licensed-data-ready operational records. Introduce one to SourceX; if a deal closes and SourceX collects its fee, you earn 25% of that fee, up to $100,000 per company.
- Step 1Share your linkSend your personal link to a company you know.
- Step 2Company appliesThe company applies itself at /apply.
- Step 3Buyer selects and paysThe buyer selects and pays for the data and SourceX receives its fee.
- Step 4You get your rewardYour share of SourceX fees becomes payable.
Free resources
- Cash conversion cycle calculator — DIO, DSO, DPO and the cash conversion cycle.
- Operational data inventory builder — List systems, record types, years held and owners.
- AI readiness assessment — Ten questions, five dimensions, a score out of 100.
- All free tools · MCP resource center
By SourceX Partnerships Team · Published 2026-10-09 · Updated 2026-10-09
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