Somewhere right now, an AI model is probably training on your face. Your voice. Your name. It didn’t ask permission, and until recently, there wasn’t even a standardized way to say no. According to some estimates, billions of images are scraped from the open web annually — most without the knowledge of the people in them. That changed on June 23, 2026, when RSL Media — a public benefit nonprofit co-founded by Cate Blanchett — launched the Human Consent Registry, a free tool open to anyone in the US or EU. Think of it as robots.txt for people: the same logic that lets websites tell search crawlers what they can access, now applied to human identity.
Traffic Lights for Your Identity
A color-coded consent system lets you set the terms for how AI may use your name, face, voice, and likeness.
Registration happens at rslmedia.org. You provide basic biographical information — name, profession, links to your online presence — then choose a consent level using a traffic-light model:
- Red means AI use of your identity is prohibited.
- Yellow means permitted with terms, such as payment or a licensing agreement.
- Green means no strings attached.
Once registered, you receive a Human Consent ID tied to machine-readable records covering your name, image, likeness, voice, movement, and other personal attributes. RSL Media plans future registries for creative works, fictional characters, and brand marks, according to Gizmodo — a push that echoes broader concerns about tech scandals where platforms exploited users without meaningful consent.
“Your identity is your IP in the age of AI, and every person deserves the right to decide how AI can or cannot use it,” Blanchett said.
Here’s the uncomfortable part. No enforcement mechanism exists yet, AI companies face no legal obligation to honor RSL signals, and registering does hand personal data to yet another third party — as Gizmodo noted. The current value is a timestamped audit trail that could support future regulatory complaints. The Brussels launch alongside EU Parliament Member Eva Maydell wasn’t accidental.
robots.txt Didn’t Stop Bad Actors Either
The registry bets on voluntary compliance and future regulation — a familiar gamble in the history of web standards.
There’s obvious irony in an actress who professionally inhabits other people’s characters leading the charge to protect identity from AI clones. But Blanchett also serves as a UNHCR Global Goodwill Ambassador, giving her genuine standing on rights issues well beyond Hollywood. RSL Media CEO Nikki Hexum framed the stakes plainly: “AI can’t respect rights it can’t see,” according to The Register.
The robots.txt parallel cuts both ways. It works when companies choose to comply. Plenty don’t. No public data yet shows how many AI firms are integrating RSL signals into their training pipelines. The broader pattern of identity tracking without consent is well documented — a surveillance app built to target individuals without their knowledge is only one example of how consent registries could matter beyond Hollywood.
Right now, the Human Consent Registry is a documented bet — on voluntary compliance, on future regulation, on the idea that asserting your refusal matters even when no one is forced to listen. Its real power depends entirely on whether AI companies decide your consent is worth honoring, or whether regulators eventually make that decision for them. In the meantime, AI-Powered Websites continue to reshape how identity and personal data flow across the internet.
