Patreon starts blocking AI bots that scrape creators’ content

In short: Patreon says it will actively block AI bots from scraping creator content for AI training, using tools from Cloudflare.

What happened

Patreon, a platform where fans pay creators for memberships, says it is tightening its defenses against “AI scraping.” AI scraping is when automated programs copy large amounts of web content so it can be used to train AI systems.

Patreon says it is extending its work with Cloudflare, a company that helps run and protect websites, to block AI training bots directly. Patreon previously relied more on a file called robots.txt, which is like a “please do not enter” sign for bots. The problem is that some bots ignore the sign.

In tests of the new blocking tools, Patreon said weekly access attempts from individual AI training crawlers dropped from thousands to zero. Patreon also said it will still allow bots that index pages, meaning bots that help people find Patreon pages in search and then click back to Patreon.

Patreon said the change is partly because it has added new discovery features, like a redesigned Home Feed and Quips, which could expose more content to crawlers.

Why it matters

Creators often worry that their writing, art, audio, or videos will be copied to train AI without their permission. Patreon’s move shows a shift from asking for good behavior to enforcing rules with blocking, more like locking a door instead of putting up a polite note.

Source: TechCrunch AI