Four AI firms back training opt-out token, but enforcement remains voluntary
Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI support a proposed robots.txt signal for opting out of AI training, though publishers would still depend on companies honoring it.
bot blocking
People Inc. builds custom APIs for AI agents
People Inc. is moving beyond web crawling toward custom APIs that provide AI partners with cleaner article text and publishing details.
NLA Media Access launches free AI scraping detection service for publishers
NLA Media Access has launched a free service that pools publisher data to identify possible content scraping and support licensing or legal action.
AI agent traffic surges as security systems struggle to detect impostors
New reports show automated web traffic rising sharply as malicious bots impersonate AI assistants and expose security gaps.
How People Inc. turned bot blocking into a business
People Inc.'s Jonathan Roberts on blocking bots by default, the 18 Napsters of content, and why AI is spending in the wrong place.
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More than 300 publishers press Congress on stealth bot bill
Publishers are lobbying for a federal bill that would require stealth crawlers to identify themselves and disclose their purpose.
News UK finds one in five website visits came from bots
News UK CTO Tom Jackson said about 20% of traffic over six months was non-human, with 6% of total traffic blocked as malicious bots.
DataDome says bad bot traffic jumped 124% as AI agents reach login pages
DataDome found malicious bot traffic grew nine times faster than human traffic, while AI agents increasingly reached login and payment flows.
Cloudflare tightens AI crawler controls for ad-supported publisher sites
Cloudflare will block training and agent crawlers by default on ad-supported pages as it moves toward pay-per-use compensation.
Publishers are fighting the wrong battle against AI
Keeping unauthorized AI crawlers out is an increasingly difficult game. That should change what publishers spend their energy fighting for.