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OpenAI to Honour Shared robots.txt Signal for Website AI Training Preferences

OpenAI · 30 Oct 2026
Key Takeaway Review your website's robots.txt file and decide whether you want your content available for AI training, then record that preference clearly.

OpenAI has announced that it will honour a shared robots.txt signal designed to help website operators communicate their preferences about AI training. The signal is intended to work across participating providers, so a site owner can state a preference once rather than dealing with each AI company separately.

For Australian small businesses that publish websites, blogs or product catalogues, this offers a clearer way to say whether their content may be used to train AI models. The robots.txt file is a standard text file that website operators already use to give instructions to automated visitors.

The announcement describes the signal as applying to participating providers. Businesses should not assume every AI developer will follow it. The summary does not say which other providers are involved or how the signal will be implemented.

AI governance robots.txt OpenAI data control
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Summarised by CISO AI from OpenAI, written with Claude Sonnet 5.5. We link back to every original so you can read it yourself.