WordPress Confirms VIP Customer Data Will Not Be Shared with AI Companies Without User Consent

Users of the widely-used blogging and web publishing platform WordPress were understandably alarmed by a recent report from 404 Media. The report revealed that Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, was in final negotiations to share user data with AI firms OpenAI and Midjourney for model training.

In a communication to WordPress customers—including this publication—CEO Nick Gernert addressed the concerns directly in a blog post on the WordPress VIP Lobby:

"Are you ready for AI agents? You may see news reports of our parent company, Automattic, striking deals to sell data from WordPress.com and Tumblr to OpenAI and Midjourney. The original report appeared in 404 Media and was picked up by The Verge.

I want to assure WordPress VIP customers that your data has not been shared in any deals Automattic may have negotiated, and we will never share your data without your explicit consent.

Regarding AI crawlers and your content: while it’s impossible to block all AI crawlers, you can indicate to reputable organizations that you prefer your content not to be crawled. More information on managing AI crawlers can be found in our documentation.

Please feel free to reach out to me directly at [email protected] if you have any questions. Thank you for your continued partnership."

Gernert’s post reassures "WordPress VIP customers" that their data remains protected. However, WordPress VIP is just one of three service tiers offered, and it is designed for enterprises at a cost of $25,000 per year. The implications for users of the free WordPress.org open-source platform and the WordPress.com fully hosted service, aimed primarily at individual bloggers, remain unclear.

I have reached out to Gernert to clarify whether the data-sharing policy he mentioned applies to these user tiers. WordPress powers approximately 40% of the internet, and any licensing of its data for AI training would, as U.S. President Joe Biden would say, be a "big f*ing deal."