Multiple AI companies bypassing web standard to scrape publisher sites, licensing firm says
Multiple artificial intelligence companies are circumventing a common web standard used by publishers to block the scraping of their content for use in generative AI systems, content licensing startup TollBit has told publishers.
A letter to publishers seen by Reuters on Friday, which does not name the AI companies or the publishers affected, comes amid a public dispute between AI search startup Perplexity and media outlet Forbes involving the same web standard and a broader debate between tech and media firms over the value of content in the age of generative AI.
The business media publisher publicly accused, Perplexity of plagiarizing its investigative stories in AI-generated summaries without citing Forbes or asking for its permission.
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multiple artificial intelligence (AI) companies are bypassing a common web standard used by publishers to prevent the scraping of their content for use in generative AI systems. Content licensing startup TollBit has informed publishers about this issue in a letter, although the specific AI companies and affected publishers are not named.