What Are AI Crawlers, And How Do They Work?

AI crawlers are bots that scan web pages to collect data… They work in the background, jumping from one link to the next. Search engines like Google use them to keep their results up to date. Travel sites also use them to track prices, and researchers use them to spot trends across websites.

Now, companies building chatbots and image tools also use crawlers. Tools like ChatGPT are trained using large amounts of information gathered online. These bots pick up everything from text and photos to videos, tables, and code.

This flood of activity means bots now make up half of all internet traffic. That number is growing. Many site owners are worried. They see AI tools taking their work, drawing traffic away, and reshaping how people interact with online content.

How Are Websites Trying To Take Control?

Websites are trying to protect their pages as, in the past, they could ask crawlers to leave certain parts alone using a file called robots.txt. This worked when crawlers followed the rules. But now, complaints are rising that newer bots ignore these files.

Some sites have added paywalls and login barriers. Others are building more creative defences. Cloudflare, a large internet security platform, has created something called AI Labyrinth. Instead of blocking bots directly, it feeds them pages filled with nonsense that looks real. These pages waste the bots’ time and use up their resources.

This trick also helps Cloudflare spot which crawlers are up to no good. If a visitor ends up four links deep in the fake content, it’s probably a bot. This helps build better defences across other websites too.

How Is OpenAI Involved In This?

OpenAI uses three different bots. GPTBot is the one used to gather training data for AI models. Website owners can block it using robots.txt. OAI-SearchBot helps ChatGPT show search results, but doesn’t collect content for training. ChatGPT-User only visits pages when a human asks ChatGPT a question.

OpenAI says it listens to site instructions, but some website operators aren’t convinced. Platforms like iFixit claim OpenAI has ignored their requests and overwhelmed their servers.

Legal cases are now starting to appear, where news companies, in particular, have filed lawsuits, arguing that their content is being taken without compensation.

What Could This Mean For Everyday Users?

The people most at risk are smaller creators. An artist, blogger or teacher may not be able to afford legal advice or strong tech tools. To stay safe, many of them are hiding their content behind login walls or taking it offline completely.

This means the open nature of the internet is going down. Visitors may find it harder to browse freely or access the work of independent creators. Some parts of the internet are already beginning to feel locked down.

There’s also a risk of power becoming concentrated in a few places. Bigger companies can afford to buy special deals or build stronger crawlers. Smaller developers and non-commercial researchers could be pushed out of the picture if access becomes more restricted.

What Could Help Keep things Fair?

Folks are calling for clearer rules, because they believe it should be easier to separate harmless data gathering, such as research or archiving, from scraping content to train commercial AI. With the right rules, it might be possible to protect both online content and fair use.

If that doesn’t happen, more websites may turn away even helpful crawlers. And if that happens, we all lose something, whether it’s access to news, art, education, or public records. The open web, as we know it, depends on finding a better way forward.