Guides · Next steps · Updated 27 October 2026
Can you stop AI from training on your artwork?
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Many artists ask whether they can stop AI companies from using their work to train image generators. The honest answer is: partly, for the future, and mostly on a voluntary basis. This guide lists what can help, what each step cannot do, and where the rules are still unsettled.
General information, not legal advice. This area changes quickly: check each company's current page before you rely on a setting, and ask a professional about your own situation.
Start with what an opt-out cannot do
- It does not remove your work from a model that has already been trained on it.
- Most opt-outs are promises by the company, not technical locks. Companies that ignore them are hard to stop.
- None of the steps below is a guarantee. Use several together and expect gaps.
1. If you run your own website: say no in robots.txt
A robots.txt file on your site tells crawlers which pages they may visit. Several AI companies publish the name of their crawler so you can block it. Examples include GPTBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), CCBot (Common Crawl), Google-Extended (Google) and Applebot-Extended (Apple). Crawler names change and new ones appear, so look up the current list on each company's own page and re-check every few months.
Limits: it only works for images on a site you control, it only covers crawlers that obey it, and it does nothing about copies of your work on other people's sites.
2. Check the settings of the sites you post on
Some portfolio and social sites offer a “no AI” tag or a setting about whether your images may be used for AI training, and some have an objection form that only applies in certain regions. Look in your account settings and the site's help pages. What exists, and what it is worth, differs from site to site and changes often.
3. Opt-out registries
A few services let you flag your works so that companies that agreed to honour the list leave them out. They only work with companies that made that commitment, and they are not a legal right. Treat them as a helpful extra.
4. Tools that alter images to confuse training
Some free tools change an image in ways that are hard to see, with the aim of disturbing a model that trains on it. Researchers have published methods that weaken some of these protections, and the tools in turn change in response. Think of them as one layer that may or may not hold up, not as a shield.
What about an invisible watermark?
An invisible watermark does not stop an AI company from training on an image, and TraceMyAssets does not claim to. Our watermark and our scans are about something else: finding copies of your work online so you can decide what to do. In our own tests the mark was removed by resizing, cropping and stronger compression (see what an invisible watermark survives).
The law is still moving
- EU: a rule on text and data mining lets rights holders reserve their rights, but only in a machine-readable way, such as in robots.txt or a similar file. Plain-text notices on a page are weaker.
- UK: the government consulted on an AI training exception with an opt-out. In its March 2026 report it did not adopt that option and kept the status quo while it watches court cases. Check the current position.
- US: court cases about training on artists' work are still in progress and there is no settled answer.
If you think a company has used your work unlawfully, talk to a lawyer or an artists' rights organisation in your country. Do not rely on a blog post, including this one.
A realistic checklist
- Block AI crawlers in robots.txt on any site you own, and review the list now and then.
- Check the AI settings on each site where you post work.
- Add your name and a copyright notice to your files and pages.
- Keep your working files and dates (see how to prove you made your artwork).
- Look for copies of your work, because that part you can act on.
See how to check whether your artwork was reposted, and how to prove you made your artwork.
Questions
Can I make a company delete my work from a model? There is no general right or tool for that today. Opt-outs mostly affect future training.
Does TraceMyAssets prevent AI training? No. It helps you find possible copies of your registered artworks on public web pages.
Related reading
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