Cloudflare to Charge AI Bots for Site Access Fees

MetaversePlanet September 24, 2024

0 1 minute read

Cloudflare will begin charging companies that want to access website content for the purpose of training artificial intelligence.

The rise of AI tools in recent years has sparked debates around copyright. Media organizations, particularly The New York Times, have initiated lawsuits against AI developers, especially OpenAI, citing concerns over unauthorized use of their content. In its lawsuit, the NYT revealed that some of its articles were copied verbatim. Despite these legal actions, AI bots continue to scrape content from websites.

Cloudflare has announced plans to launch a marketplace for AI tools next year. Website owners who participate in this marketplace will be able to offer their content for AI training in exchange for compensation. Cloudflare’s CEO, Matthew Prince, stated that this initiative is part of a broader strategy to give publishers more control over the use of their content by AI bots.

The activities of artificial intelligence bots will be able to be observed.

Cloudflare has launched a feature called AI Audit, which is initially offered for free. This tool’s analytics dashboard allows site administrators to track when, why, and how often AI bots visit their pages. They can also block bots that they do not wish to access their site.

The model enables independent monitoring of bot activity from companies such as OpenAI, Meta, and Amazon, along with other AI content providers. This allows content creators to understand which companies are accessing their content and for what purposes.

Cloudflare claims it is taking steps to protect small creators from large language models. Time will tell if this model will set a precedent for other service providers or if alternative solutions will arise.