«الدفع مقابل الزحف».. أداة لتحصيل الرسوم من شركات الـ AI

Cloudflare, a company specializing in cybersecurity solutions and software, announced the launch of a new tool that allows website owners to control the access of AI crawlers to their content, with the option to request financial compensation for its use.

According to Reuters, this step aims to support websites in generating revenue from AI companies that seek to use their content to train their models.

The tool enables website owners to choose whether AI crawlers can access their content, with the option to set financial fees under a "pay-per-crawl" system.

This feature aims to empower website owners to control how their content is used and to receive fair compensation.

This measure comes amid a decline in advertising revenues resulting from traditional visitor traffic from search engines, due to AI crawlers collecting content without redirecting visitors to the original sites.

The initiative has received support from major publishers such as Condé Nast and the Associated Press, along with social media companies like Reddit and Pinterest.

Stephanie Cohen, Chief Strategy Officer at Cloudflare, explained that the goal is to give publishers greater control over their content and ensure the sustainability of the internet ecosystem between content creators and AI companies.

She stated, "The changes in internet traffic patterns have been rapid, and a change was necessary; this is just the beginning of a new model for the internet."

Data from Cloudflare revealed that the ratio of Google search engine crawling to the number of visitors redirected to sites dropped from 6:1 to 18:1 in just six months, reflecting Google's continued collection of content while reducing visitor redirection.

This is partly due to features like "AI Overview," which provide direct answers within search results.

However, Google's ratio remains much better compared to AI companies like OpenAI, which recorded a ratio of 1:1500.

Traditionally, search engines indexed content and redirected users to original sites, rewarding creators for the quality of their content, but AI crawlers have changed this model by collecting content without redirecting visitors and using it to train systems like ChatGPT, depriving publishers of revenue and profits.

Meanwhile, some AI companies are bypassing traditional web standards that prevent content collection without permission, claiming that it is legal.

In contrast, some entities have resorted to legal actions, with The New York Times filing lawsuits against AI companies for copyright infringement.

Platforms like Reddit have taken a dual approach, suing Anthropic for collecting user comments while simultaneously signing a content licensing agreement with Google.

The Cloudflare tool represents an innovative step to rebalance the relationship between content creators and AI companies amid rapid shifts in online content consumption models. With support from major media and social companies, this initiative could pave the way for a new model that ensures the sustainability of the digital content industry.