July 3rd, 2024

Cloudflare debuts one-click nuke of web-scraping AI

Cloudflare launches one-click solution to block AI bots scraping websites without permission. Aiming to combat dishonest AI bot activities, the feature complements robots.txt method, detecting and blocking bots disguising as browsers.

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Cloudflare debuts one-click nuke of web-scraping AI

Cloudflare has introduced a one-click solution to block AI bots from scraping website content without permission for training machine learning models. This move aims to address customer concerns about dishonest AI bot activities and to protect content creators on the internet. The company's new feature complements the existing robots.txt file method used by website owners to block automated web crawlers. Cloudflare's machine learning model can detect and block AI bots that attempt to bypass these restrictions, even when they disguise themselves as real browsers. The company's initiative comes in response to the increasing prevalence of AI bots, with around 39 percent of the top one million web properties served by Cloudflare being visited by these bots. By offering a simple toggle button for customers to block AI scrapers and crawlers, Cloudflare aims to enhance bot detection and protect content creators from unauthorized data usage for AI training purposes.

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Link Icon 3 comments
By @gnabgib - 5 months
Discussion (65 points, 9 hours ago, 30 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40865627
By @bell-cot - 5 months
Daydream: Cloudflare's next offering is a stealthier alternative - serving AI's poisoned versions of web pages, designed to sabotage their training.