Pierre-Carl Langlais, co-founder of Pleias, is pushing back on the EU's interest in opt-out mechanisms for AI training data that mirror Spawning's earlier ai.txt protocol and related identity tools. A US nonprofit called RSL Media launched its own version this year, including a public registry for consent signals, and an EU parliament member highlighted the approach in late June. Langlais and others see the move as arriving years after the originals and tilting toward particular players rather than delivering broad safeguards.
Yeah that’s EU AI in a nutshell: projects are only worth if they benefit the right persons.
So a new American company cloned @spawning_ opt outs, ai.txt, identity tools verbatim and is now being embraced by the EU many years too late to make much of a difference
Spawning built ai.txt around 2023 to let sites signal restrictions on AI training use, yet the newer registry only reaches the public in mid-2026. Without established details on how widely labs will query or honor the cloned signals, creators face an open question about whether the delay simply locks in existing training practices.
A single MEP post has drawn notice to RSL Media's consent framework, even though the original Spawning tools already addressed similar EU text-and-data-mining rules. Observers note the timing could steer policy conversations toward the newer US effort, but evidence on formal endorsements or competitive effects remains thin.
Many users condemned the EU embracing cloned spawning AI opt-out tools via a US company as grift and insider dealing that discourages researchers.
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Unfortunately our core issue is much worse than over-regulation: generalized grift. Policy people are daily joining mid companies they helped propel/entrench and it’s totally normalized.
@Dorialexander They should have set up a photoshoot with an American actress
@matdryhurst Totally. Everyone I know in EU LLM actual research (a very small world) is disinvested and discouraged.
@Dorialexander Unserious and alienating to the people who may have invested faith in the structure
As MEP and as a WEF board member Eva Maydell put it: “History shows that the winners are not always the inventors, but the adopters.” in her words the EU should focus on *applying* the best AI tools, no matter where they come from, to transform our key industries. Let us all become vassals and die in servitude.
@Dorialexander
@Dorialexander Mat lost support also from rightsholders and creatives for his questionable principles which did not align with theirs, so basically it's entirely his fault the idea didn't work. This new startup can't be worse!
(Kuduru was interesting though, had teeth. Should have been OSS'd.)
Yeah that’s EU AI in a nutshell: projects are only worth if they benefit the right persons.
@Dorialexander Worse than insider trading in the Trump administration