IAB Tech Lab proposes rules around AI content scraping | MarTech

"AI systems require chips, power, and information. Information is the only input in that equation that does not yet have a consistent commercial infrastructure around it. If we expect high-quality content to continue fueling AI-driven products, we need clear terms of engagement and a mechanism that supports compensation, accountability, and long-term sustainability."

"Instead of every publisher cutting one-off licensing deals or building custom integrations with each AI platform, CoMP proposes a shared protocol. Content owners could signal permissions and commercial terms in a standardized way. AI systems could check those signals before accessing or using content. In theory, that reduces friction on both sides."

Publishers have experienced significant traffic declines as AI systems ingest and summarize their content without compensation. While AI infrastructure is highly commercialized, the information feeding it lacks consistent commercial frameworks. The IAB Tech Lab introduced COMP version 1.0 to address this imbalance by creating standardized protocols for publishers and AI systems to establish commercial terms before crawling or content use. Rather than requiring individual licensing deals between each publisher and AI platform, COMP enables content owners to signal permissions and commercial terms uniformly. AI systems can check these standardized signals before accessing content, reducing friction for both parties while ensuring compensation, accountability, and long-term sustainability of high-quality content production.

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