Cloudflare is taking a stand: from now on, it will block known AI bots from scraping websites automatically.
AI companies have been crawling the web for years, often without permission or compensation. That’s about to change.
Cloudflare will now:
– Block AI scrapers by default for all new domains
– Let publishers decide which bots get in
– Offer a “Pay Per Crawl” option so AI companies can be charged to access content
But this is much bigger than just blocking bots.
Cloudflare is directly challenging how AI companies gather data:
– No more silent scraping. No more “free” access to the open web.
– The new Pay Per Crawl system could force AI labs to pay publishers finally putting a price on content that powers generative models.
Cloudflare is also demanding transparency from AI companies:
– They must identify themselves clearly
– Declare whether they’re using content for training, search, or inference
– Let website owners decide if they’re allowed in
Cloudflare’s CEO said:
“Original content is what makes the internet great. We have to protect it.”
Major publishers like AP, The Atlantic, Stack Overflow, and Quora are backing this move.
And if Cloudflare succeeds, others will follow.
This could trigger a fundamental shift in how AI models are trained:
– Web content will no longer be free fuel
– AI companies may be forced to license data or get locked out
And there’s more on the horizon:
Cloudflare is experimenting with tools like the AI Labyrinth to trap and confuse rogue crawlers.
This isn’t just a policy update. It’s a warning shot.
The age of unregulated scraping might be coming to an end.
