Top AI firms back new tool to opt out of data scraping
anthropic google microsoft openai training
| Source: The Verge | Original article
OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic will adopt a new standard that lets publishers opt out of AI scraping, enabling unified control over training data across major AI firms.
OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic have announced that they will adopt a new opt‑out standard for AI training data, giving publishers a single mechanism to block their content from being scraped by the companies’ crawlers. The move, first reported by Search Engine Roundtable, lets publishers set their AI‑training preferences once and have them respected across the four firms, rather than negotiating separate agreements with each.
The development follows mounting pressure from media organisations and copyright advocates who argue that large‑scale text and image scraping fuels the rapid growth of generative models while sidestepping the rights of content creators. A unified opt‑out could streamline compliance, reduce legal friction and improve transparency around how training data are collected. For the AI giants, adopting a common protocol may also pre‑empt stricter regulation by showing a willingness to respect publisher choices.
As we reported on 31 October, the same quartet pledged to support a cross‑company standard that publishers can use to opt out of multiple crawlers. This latest statement confirms that the commitment is moving from pledge to implementation.
What to watch next are the technical details of the standard and the timeline for rollout. Industry observers will be looking for the governing body that will host the specification, how quickly other AI developers join, and whether regulators cite the initiative as a model for broader data‑use rules. Publishers will also test the mechanism’s effectiveness, and any gaps could spark further debate over the balance between open AI research and intellectual‑property protection.
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