People Inc.'s CEO Criticizes Major Tech Company for Unfair Practices
People Inc.'s chief executive officer is calling out a major tech company for its unfair practices. The CEO claims that this company is using its bots to browse through their websites, not only for the purpose of listing them on their search engine, but also to support their artificial intelligence (AI) products.
The Issue of Content Crawling
The CEO explained that the tech company uses the same bot for their search engine indexing and AI features. This bot browses through websites, not just to list them in the search engine, but also to take content for their AI projects. This, he says, is unfair and equivalent to content theft.
He shed light on the fact that, a few years back, this tech company's search engine accounted for the majority of People Inc.'s traffic. However, the traffic from the search engine has now reduced drastically. This, however, hasn't impacted People Inc. negatively as they have succeeded in expanding their audience and growing their revenue.
Standing Up Against Unfair Practices
The CEO emphasized that it's wrong for this tech giant to take content from People Inc.'s websites and use it to compete against them. He feels strongly that publishers should have more power in the AI era. This is why he believes it's crucial to block AI bots — automated programs that scan websites to train AI systems. These bots can be blocked to compel them into signing content deals.
People Inc. has already implemented this strategy. They've used the services of a web infrastructure company to block AI bots that don't pay. This has resulted in AI companies approaching People Inc. with potential content deals. Although no deals have been finalized, the company is making progress in their negotiations.
The Challenge with Major Tech Company Bots
However, the CEO highlighted that the tech company's bot can't be blocked because this would also stop People Inc.'s websites from being listed in its search engine. This would cut off the remaining traffic that the search engine still delivers.
He stated that the tech company knows this and is not making an effort to separate their search engine bot from their AI bot. This makes them an intentional wrongdoer in the situation.
Voices Against Unfair Practices
Other voices in the industry agree with this sentiment. The CEO of a popular newsletter provider also criticized major tech companies for their content theft. She expressed skepticism about the benefits of partnering with any AI company and revealed that her company also blocks AI bots.
Future Predictions
On the other hand, the CEO of the web infrastructure company providing the AI-blocking solution believes that the behavior of AI companies will change in the future. He anticipates that these changes could be prompted by new regulations.
He questioned the effectiveness of legal solutions based on copyright law in this AI era. He suggested that AI companies are creating derivatives, which are typically protected under fair use according to copyright law.
Despite these challenges, he predicted that, by next year, the tech company will start paying content creators for browsing their content and using it in AI models.