Cloudflare Enables Websites To Block AI Bots With One-Click Solution
What new feature has Cloudflare introduced for website owners?
Cloudflare has introduced a new feature that allows website owners to block AI bots from scraping their website content with just a single click. This feature is available to all Cloudflare users, including those on the free tier, and is designed to be dynamic, with Cloudflare continuously updating it to address new fingerprints of offending bots identified as widely scraping the web for model training5.
How can Cloudflare customers activate the AI bot blocking feature?
Cloudflare customers can activate the AI bot blocking feature by navigating to the Security section of the Cloudflare dashboard and toggling the "AI Scrapers and Crawlers" switch. This feature is available to all Cloudflare users, including those on the free tier, and allows customers to block all AI bots with a single click3.
What distinguishes AI bots from traditional web crawlers?
AI bots, also known as AI crawlers or scrapers, are automated programs that systematically browse the internet and collect vast amounts of data. Unlike traditional web crawlers used by search engines to index content, AI bots often gather information to train large language models or power AI-driven applications. Some AI bots may not adhere to courtesies like respecting robots.txt files and identifying themselves clearly, which distinguishes them from traditional web crawlers.