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Khaleej Times
an hour ago
- Khaleej Times
How AI crawlers scrape the internet at large just changed
Cloudflare, Inc, the leading connectivity cloud company, has announced it is now the first Internet infrastructure provider to block AI crawlers accessing content without permission or compensation, by default. Starting today, website owners can choose if they want AI crawlers to access their content, and decide how AI companies can use it. AI companies can also now clearly state their purpose – if their crawlers are used for training, inference, or search – to help website owners decide which crawlers to allow. Cloudflare's new default setting is the first step toward a more sustainable future for both content creators and AI innovators. For decades, the Internet has operated on a simple exchange: search engines index content and direct users back to original websites, generating traffic and ad revenue for websites of all sizes. This cycle rewards creators that produce quality content with money and a following, while helping users discover new and relevant information. That model is now broken. AI crawlers collect content like text, articles, and images to generate answers, without sending visitors to the original source – depriving content creators of revenue, and the satisfaction of knowing someone is viewing their content. If the incentive to create original, quality content disappears, society ends up losing, and the future of the Internet is at risk. 'If the Internet is going to survive the age of AI, we need to give publishers the control they deserve and build a new economic model that works for everyone – creators, consumers, tomorrow's AI founders, and the future of the web itself,' said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. 'Original content is what makes the Internet one of the greatest inventions in the last century, and it's essential that creators continue making it. AI crawlers have been scraping content without limits. Our goal is to put the power back in the hands of creators, while still helping AI companies innovate. This is about safeguarding the future of a free and vibrant Internet with a new model that works for everyone.' 'Cloudflare's innovative approach to block AI crawlers is a game-changer for publishers and sets a new standard for how content is respected online. When AI companies can no longer take anything they want for free, it opens the door to sustainable innovation built on permission and partnership,' said Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast. 'This is a critical step toward creating a fair value exchange on the Internet that protects creators, supports quality journalism and holds AI companies accountable.' 'We have long said that AI platforms must fairly compensate publishers and creators to use our content. We can now limit access to our content to those AI partners willing to engage in fair arrangements,' said Neil Vogel, CEO of Dotdash Meredith. 'We're proud to support Cloudflare and look forward to using their tools to protect our content and the open web.' 'As the largest publisher in the country, comprised of USA TODAY and over 200 local publications throughout the USA TODAY Network, blocking unauthorized scraping and the use of our original content without fair compensation is critically important,' said Renn Turiano, Chief Consumer and Product Officer of Gannett Media. 'As our industry faces these challenges, we are optimistic the Cloudflare technology will help combat the theft of valuable IP.' 'Creators and publishers around the world leverage Pinterest to expand their businesses, reach new audiences and directly measure their success. As AI continues to reshape the digital landscape, we are committed to building a healthy Internet infrastructure where content is used for its intended purpose, so creators and publishers can thrive,' said Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest. 'AI companies, search engines, researchers, and anyone else crawling sites have to be who they say they are. And any platform on the web should have a say in who is taking their content for what,' said Steve Huffman, co-founder and CEO of Reddit. 'The whole ecosystem of creators, platforms, web users and crawlers will be better when crawling is more transparent and controlled, and Cloudflare's efforts are a step in the right direction for everyone.' 'We applaud Cloudflare for advocating for a sustainable digital ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders — the consumers who rely on credible information, the publishers who invest in its creation, and the advertisers who support its dissemination,' said Vivek Shah, CEO of Ziff Davis. Cloudflare powers one of the world's largest networks, helping to manage and protect traffic for 20% of the web. The company handles trillions of requests daily, and thus has the world's most advanced bot management solutions, accurately distinguishing between human users and AI crawlers. In September 2024, Cloudflare introduced the option to block AI crawlers in a single click. More than one million customers have since chosen this option, meant to be an aggressive but easy solution that halts scraping while they determine their AI strategy. Now, Cloudflare is taking the next step to enforce a permission-based model for AI crawlers. AI companies will now be required to obtain explicit permission from a website before scraping. Upon sign-up with Cloudflare, every new domain will now be asked if they want to allow AI crawlers, giving customers the choice upfront to explicitly allow or deny AI crawlers access. This significant shift means that every new domain starts with the default of control, and eliminates the need for webpage owners to manually configure their settings to opt out. Customers can easily check their settings and enable crawling at any time if they want their content to be freely accessed. Now Cloudflare is making the content ecosystem more transparent for AI companies and creators. The company recently proposed new ways for AI bots to authenticate themselves as well as for websites to identify those bots – giving creators and website owners new identification mechanisms and control over what crawlers they want to allow. Cloudflare is participating in the development of a new protocol to provide bot owners and AI agent developers with a public, standard way to identify themselves.
Khaleej Times
3 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Microsoft laying off several thousand employees globally
Microsoft on Wednesday said it was slashing a little less than four percent of its global workforce as it seeks to cut layers of middle management and leverage new technologies. "We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace," a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email. The cloud computing tech giant did not disclose the total amount of lost jobs but as of June 2024 it employed 228,000 people, bringing the latest layoffs to about 9,000 people. The job cuts follow a round in May that saw about 6,000 positions culled from its global workforce. The company, which is advancing in its plans to deploy AI across all its products, said it was working to "empower employees to spend more time focusing on meaningful work by leveraging new technologies and capabilities." "Even in the best of times, we have regularly adjusted our workforce to meet the strategic demands of the business," the company added. The company, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, was one of the first tech giants to double down on artificial intelligence when the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 rocked the tech industry.
Khaleej Times
4 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Weak dollar to unlock opportunities in emerging markets and global equities
With the US dollar at multi-year lows and expected to weaken further over the next six to 12 months, prospects are improving for emerging-market assets, a report showed on Wednesday. Standard Chartered's Global Market Outlook for the second half of 2025 projects a constructive but volatile environment for investors worldwide. In the United States, growth continues to be supported by resilient consumption and fiscal stimulus, though trade and policy uncertainty may temper momentum in the second half of the year. In Europe, fiscal easing increasingly offers support, but structural challenges persist while China's outlook is stabilising on the back of targeted stimulus and improving retail activity. Meanwhile, growth in India and ASEAN is expected to remain well-supported. 'We expect the US dollar to weaken over the next 6 to 12 months and have accordingly upgraded Asia (ex-Japan) equities and Emerging Market (EM) local-currency bonds to Overweight. Global equities also remain an overweight position across portfolios, supported by healthy earnings, easing trade tensions, and controlled inflation (so far),' the report said. Commenting on the report, Ayesha Abbas, managing director and head of affluent and wealth solutions, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and UAE at Standard Chartered, said: 'As global markets transition into a new phase, Middle East investors are well-positioned to capitalise on emerging opportunities. A weaker dollar historically supports returns across risk assets, particularly in emerging markets, which have long been core components of regional portfolios.' She added: 'This outlook underscores a critical moment for investors in the region. As the global environment adjusts to weak dollar dynamics, shifting trade policies, and diverging central bank actions, investors in the Middle East have an opportunity to reposition portfolios with greater international diversification. Asset classes such as emerging market bonds and equities across major regions (including non-US equities) are well-placed to help investors navigate volatility, capture income, and enhance portfolio resilience in today's shifting landscape.' In line with these themes, the report maintains a preference for USD-denominated bonds in the five to seven-year maturity range, citing them as the most attractive in terms of risk-adjusted returns, particularly as yields begin to ease from current levels. Meanwhile, developed market investment grade corporate bonds have been downgraded to Underweight due to tight yield premiums and slower inflows. Alternative investments are also in focus, with the bank highlighting gold as a core allocation, supported by strong central bank demand and its role as a diversifier when bonds offer less downside protection.
