It's the other way around. Paywalls are a result of the web and the Ad companies which power it killing the revenue models of publishers. AI, which steals even more and repackages their content, will make it worse.
What I don't understand is why nobody has actually figured this out. I read a lot of different news sources. I'd have no problem paying a reasonable amount of money to read an article I came across in the Podunk Picayune that looked of interest, but no, I have to sign up for a subscription. So they get nothing.