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Creative Commons Launches CC Signals: New Framework for Open AI Data Use

futureTEKnow
June 26, 2025

If you’ve followed the evolution of Creative Commons (CC) and its mission to keep the web open, you’ll want to pay attention to their latest move: the launch of CC Signals. Announced this week, CC Signals is a new framework that lets data stewards—think photographers, writers, educators, and institutions—clearly express how their content can be used by AI systems. It’s a timely response to the growing debate over how AI models are trained and the fate of open knowledge online

Why CC Signals? The Data Dilemma in the Age of AI

AI models are hungry for data, and much of what they consume is scraped from the open web. This has sparked two big concerns. On one side, creators and institutions worry that their work is being used without consent, credit, or compensation. On the other, there’s a fear that, in response, more content will disappear behind paywalls, threatening the open internet as we know it.

CC Signals aims to chart a middle path—a way to keep knowledge open while ensuring that those who contribute data see meaningful returns, not just for themselves but for the broader public good. As Anna Tumadóttir, CEO of Creative Commons, puts it: “CC signals are designed to sustain the commons in the age of AI. Just as the CC licenses helped build the open web, we believe CC signals will help shape an open AI ecosystem grounded in reciprocity”.

How Does CC Signals Work?

At its heart, CC Signals is about clarity and choice. Here’s the basic idea:

Declaring Party: The person or organization that manages a dataset (the “Declaring Party”) decides how their content can be used by machines. This could be a photographer, a university, or even a collaborative community project.

Signal Elements: There are four main “signals” data stewards can apply, each representing a different level of openness and reciprocity:

Credit: Require attribution for use.
Credit + Direct Contribution: Attribution plus a direct benefit (like a fee or donation).
Credit + Ecosystem Contribution: Attribution plus a broader contribution to the commons.
Credit + Open: The most open option, emphasizing sharing and reuse.

Human- and Machine-Readable: These signals are designed to be both easily understood by people and readable by machines, ensuring they can be consistently applied across the web.

A Social Contract for AI

What’s unique about CC Signals is that it’s not just a legal tool—it’s a social proposition. It invites data stewards and AI developers to participate in a new kind of pact, one that’s rooted in shared values and collective action. The more creators and institutions use the same signals, the more likely it is that AI companies will respect them. In other words, CC Signals aims to make ethical data use the norm, not the exception.

What’s Next?

Creative Commons has opened the doors for public feedback, with early design documents available on GitHub and an alpha release planned for November 2025. The framework is built to evolve, with categories for machine use (like AI training or data mining) based on global standards from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), not just CC’s own definitions.

The bottom line: CC Signals could help restore balance to the internet’s data economy, giving creators a say in how their work shapes the future of AI. It’s a promising step for anyone invested in open knowledge, ethical AI, and the future of the commons.

If you’re a creator, educator, or just someone who cares about the future of open data, now’s the time to get involved. The conversation is just beginning—and your voice matters.

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