AI Preferences
charter-ietf-aipref-00-01

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 vocabulary for expressing AI-related preferences, independent of how those preferences are associated with content.
• A 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 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
• Authenticating or authorising clients and/or crawlers
• Establishment of registries of preferences relating to content
• Auditing and other transparency measures for AI training