AI Preferences (aipref) Internet Drafts

      
 Proposal for an Opt-Out Vocabulary
 
 draft-ietf-aipref-vocab-00.txt
 Date: 30/04/2025
 Authors: Paul Keller, Martin Thomson
 Working Group: AI Preferences (aipref)
 This document proposes a standardized vocabulary of use cases that can be targeted when expressing machine-readable opt-outs related to Text and Data Mining (TDM) and AI training. The vocabulary is agnostic to specific opt-out mechanisms and enables declaring parties to communicate restrictions or permissions regarding the use of their digital assets in a structured and interoperable manner. It defines three key use cases—TDM, AI Training, and Generative AI Training—which can be referenced by opt-out systems to ensure consistent interpretation across different implementations.

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AI Preferences (aipref)

WG Name AI Preferences
Acronym aipref
Area Web and Internet Transport (wit)
State Active
Charter charter-ietf-aipref-01 Approved
Document dependencies
Additional resources GitHub Organization
Additional Web Page
Personnel Chairs Mark Nottingham, Suresh Krishnan
Area Director Mike Bishop
Mailing list Address ai-control@ietf.org
To subscribe https://mailman3.ietf.org/mailman3/lists/ai-control.ietf.org/
Archive https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/ai-control/
Chat Room address https://zulip.ietf.org/#narrow/stream/aipref

Charter for Working Group

The AI Preferences Working Group will standardize building blocks that allow for the expression of preferences about how content is collected and processed for Artificial Intelligence (AI) model development, deployment, and use.

There are many ways that preferences regarding content might be expressed. The Working Group will focus on attaching preferences to content either by including preferences in content metadata or by signaling preferences using the protocol that delivers content.

The Working Group will deliver:

  • A standard track document covering vocabulary for expressing AI-related preferences, independent of how those preferences are associated with content.
  • Standard track document(s) describing means of attaching or associating those preferences with content in IETF-defined protocols and formats, including but not limited to using Well-Known URIs (RFC 8615) such as the Robots Exclusion Protocol (RFC 9309), and HTTP response header fields.
  • A standard method for reconciling multiple expressions of preferences.

The working group is expected to liaise as appropriate with:

  • International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) and the PLUS Coalition, regarding attachment in formats controlled by these bodies
  • WHATWG and/or W3C, regarding attachment in HTML and other formats controlled by these bodies
  • Other bodies responsible for content formats, as appropriate

Liaisons are intended to aid the incorporation into protocols, mechanisms, frameworks and content formats developed and controlled by external bodies.

The following topics are out of scope for this charter:

  • Technical enforcement of preferences
  • Application layer protocols for authenticating or authorizing clients and/or crawlers
  • Establishment of registries of preferences relating to content
  • Auditing and other transparency measures for AI training

Milestones

Date Milestone Associated documents
Aug 2025 Standard track protocol specification(s) to associate the AI-related preferences to the IESG for publication
Aug 2025 A standard track specification describing vocabulary for expressing AI-related preferences to the IESG for publication