What is an AI Web Crawler?
US and UK publishers have started blocking Artificial Intelligence (AI) web crawlers to prevent unauthorised use of their content.This has renewed calls in India for consent-based copyright safeguards and fair revenue sharing, raising key concerns in digital governance, copyright enforcement, and ethical AI use.An AI web crawler is a type of automated software or bot that scans and collects content from the internet specifically to help train AI models like Large Language Models (LLMs), or to provide live information retrieval for AI assistants.
Types:
- Model Training Crawler: Extract website data to train generative AI models
- Examples: GPTBot (OpenAI), Amazonbot (Amazon), GoogleOther (Google)
- Live Retrieval Crawlers: These bots pull real-time data from websites to supplement pre-trained models during user queries, ensuring up-to-date and cited responses in AI search tools
- It is used by AI platforms like Bing, ChatGPT, etc., to stay updated.
