The Web is Changing: How CC Signals Respond to the AI Era

As we look back on 2025,it’s clear that the internet is changing. Technology-enabled access to knowledge should be flourishing. Instead, facts is being removed from the web or locked away in walled gardens. We are experiencing a crisis in the commons,driven in part by current AI development practices. New systems are emerging-from content monetization schemes and licensing agreements designed to protect large rightsholders, to the ongoing lawsuits about how AI services are using content as data. We are in the midst of a major reconfiguration of how we share and reuse content on the web.

CC Signals: A Refresher

it is indeed within this environment that we continue to develop CC signals.

We introduced the CC signals concept last June during a live webinar, and further explored the motivation behind this work in our report From Human Content to Machine Data. We also shared the outcomes of our open feedback period following the CC signals kickoff. Since then, we’ve been experimenting in partnership with values-aligned stakeholders and developing pilot projects to test ideas raised by the community.

The goal of CC signals is to help creators and custodians of collections express how they want their content or data to be used in AI development in ways that uphold reciprocity, recognition, and sustainability. Today’s AI systems depend on vast amounts of human-created content, often collected without the awareness or involvement of those who made it. This has concentrated power and undermined trust in the social contract of the commons.

CC signals responds by promoting community agency while preserving Creative Commons’ core commitment to access and open sharing.