OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic back one robots.txt signal for AI training opt-outs
OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic say they will honor a shared robots.txt signal for AI training preferences, with Google targeting a 2027 rollout.
Four AI giants have announced plans to agree on something, and it fits in a text file. OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic say they will adopt a new standard publishers can use to opt out of being scraped by AI, The Verge reported, crediting earlier coverage from Search Engine Roundtable. OpenAI says it will honor a shared robots.txt signal to help website operators communicate their preferences to participating providers.
Here is the mechanism, according to Google's announcement. Site owners get a shared "policy token" in robots.txt instead of separate instructions for every AI developer. If a site opts out with the token and does not specify Google-Extended, Google plans to treat it as if Google-Extended were disallowed. Company-specific controls keep working alongside the new signal. Google says the draft builds on the IETF's AIPREF working group and is consistent with the EU Code of Practice for General Purpose AI Model Providers.
The timeline: Google aims to support the control alongside other providers in 2027. The announcement gives no exact date and no token syntax.
One wrinkle. The Verge frames this as opting out of scraping, while Google calls it an AI training control, and says sites that specifically allow Google-Extended can appear in Gemini Apps responses and get clicks. Google has offered Google-Extended since 2023.
My take: one shared signal, four giants promising to listen. That is diplomacy at its most elegant. Now let's see 2027 arrive.
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Meanwhile at the anchor desk
The Verge says scraping, Google says training, and those are not the same thing. The announcement also gives no token syntax, so what exactly is being honored is still a footnote.
No token string and no exact launch date: this announcement is not a setup guide. Keep your Google-Extended rules, since Google says they keep working.
