[ai-control] Re: Questions about 4.2 Search

[Martin Thomson <[e-mail]>]

On Fri, Aug 21, 2026, at 11:27, Alissa Cooper wrote:
> "[...] Where existing controls restrict presentation of these 
> items, such as limitations on snippet size, those apply before any 
> changes.”
[...]
> If I’m understanding this right, why does that last sentence belong in 
> this vocabulary document? Like, why is the vocabulary document deciding 
> a priori that every site owner who says “search=y” wants search 
> applications to snip before translating, rather than translating before 
> snipping?

I've lost context, but is seems like the idea was that the definition of "excerpt length" is defined in the native form "at most 100 characters" makes no sense as a restriction after text-to-speech.  The text was attempting to address that more generally.

However, with hindsight, it seems like we don't need to say this.  Anyone defining some sort of restriction can (and should) consider the effect their restriction might have on accessibility-related transformations.  Then it is *them* not us, who needs to consider this.  I've suggested that we strip this language in https://github.com/ietf-wg-aipref/drafts/pull/227

> "Allowing this use is conditional on the outputs of any processing 
> being exclusively used by the search application according to the other 
> restrictions in this section. That includes the training of AI models 
> using the assets and the use of those models provided that the 
> resulting models and their outputs are used exclusively in ways that 
> meet the above conditions.”
>
> What does the “that” refer to as the first word of the second sentence? 

Ah, "that" was supposed to refer to the use that was allowed.  That could be clearer.

Overall, this could be clearer, but your understanding is correct:

> Is the point here that if two of the uses that the search application 
> makes of the asset are (1) to train AI models using the asset or (2) to 
> use those trained models, those two uses are allowed when search=y only 
> if the presentation of the asset meets the two bullet point conditions? 

I've tried to clarify further in https://github.com/ietf-wg-aipref/drafts/pull/228