Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI agree to let websites opt out of AI training
Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI have agreed to support and implement an opt-out mechanism developed by an IETF working group, allowing website owners to express their preferences regarding the use of their content for generative AI training, separately from search indexing and archiving. OpenAI calls it a voluntary mechanism that lets publishers convey the same preference to multiple participating vendors at once; Microsoft says publishers should not have to choose between Bing discoverability and models using their work. Anthropic has already implemented the mechanism, while Google, Microsoft and OpenAI will implement it in 2027, after which it will be proposed as an international standard.
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A unified opt-out signal introduced by an IETF working group lets websites express their training preferences to multiple vendors at once; Anthropic has already implemented it, and the other three are scheduled for 2027.
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Some of the world’s biggest AI companies have agreed to let website owners opt out of AI model training. Unfortunately, this move comes years after all of them stole content at a scale never before seen, making the change largely symbolic.
Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI have decided to support and implement the new system.
“Publishers should not have to choose between being discoverable in Bing and deciding how generative models use their work,” Microsoft principal product manager Krishna Madhavan writes. “Today, we are offering newer, simpler, and clearer preferences that allow you to make choices about training, grounding, or both while remaining eligible for Bing search results.”
“OpenAI will honor a common signal … that lets websites express their preferences about the use of their content for foundational generative AI training,” the OpenAI announcement explains. “This voluntary effort makes it easier for publishers and website operators to communicate the same preference to multiple participating providers at once.”
The opt out system was created by a working group at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and it will be proposed as an international standard once it’s complete. It allows a website to communicate to all AI content scrapers that they wish to opt out of this behavior separately from search indexing and archiving. Anthropic has implemented it already, but Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI will do so in 2027.