Microblogging website Tumblr and blogging platform WordPress.com will soon begin sharing their data with the artificial intelligence companies OpenAI and Midjourney.

The platforms’ parent company, Automattic Inc., published a blog post today assuring users of the platform that they will be able to opt out of the deals that will be made to train AI. The company said users may be able to ask for attribution or, at least, have some control regarding what happens to their content. It’s not clear what the deals will look like, but they are reported to be “imminent.”

“Proposed regulations around the world, like the European Union’s AI Act, would give individuals more control over whether and how their content is utilized by this emerging technology,” explained Tumblr. “We support this right regardless of geographic location, so we’re releasing a toggle to opt out of sharing content from your public blogs with third parties, including AI platforms that use this content for model training.”

Since generative AI, led by Microsoft Corp.-backed Open AI, took the world by storm, legislators and politicians have been scrambling to understand what is lawful when it comes to AI companies trawling the internet to train their AI models.

There have been numerous lawsuits, including one launched by the New York Times later last year, a copyright claim that Open AI has strenuously denied. Just today, Open AI accused the newspaper of using hackers to hack its platform and create misleading evidence in the case.

Authors, publishers and other creators, as well as news organizations, have also fought back against what they consider AI companies unfairly using their work, although in some cases, the AI firms have struck deals with the content creators.

One company that is a virtual treasure trove for AI companies is Reddit Inc., which also found itself in a scrap with Open AI last year. Tumblr and WordPress are now following in the footsteps of Reddit by making deals with AI companies rather than battle it out in courts over how their content is used.

Photo: Souvik Banerjee/Unsplash