Apple is currently intensifying its efforts in the area of artificial intelligence. But many large US websites are now apparently putting obstacles in the way of the iPhone company and blocking the AI training of the Apple bot.
Just in June, Apple presented its new AI system Apple Intelligence at its WWDC developer conference. According to the US company, this will serve as “the personal intelligent system for iPhone, iPad and Mac”.
But AI training has gotten off to a somewhat bumpy start for Apple so far. Because How Wired reportednumerous US websites are blocking Apple’s AI scraping.
AI training: Apple is not allowed to train
The Apple bot has been around since 2015 and was initially used to improve Apple products such as Siri or Spotlight. But now Apple has introduced the Apple Bot Extended, which comes with expanded functions. Because the data that this AI bot collects can also be used to train AI models.
At its developer conference, Apple explicitly pointed out that it would offer website operators special options. This is intended to ensure that only data from websites that have agreed to this are included in the AI training.
But according to that Wiredreport, the big players in particular are blocking this, including the New York Times and also Facebook and Instagram. But Tumblr, the Financial Times, the USA Today network and Wired’s parent company Condé Nast are also making use of their exclusion from Apple’s AI training.
The main focus here is on fears about intellectual property. This is why publishers, for example, can block Apple Bot Extended. All they need to do is update the Robots Exclusion Protocol text file on their websites.
Media companies in particular are blocking the Apple bot
Analyzes show that the percentage excluding Apple is still relatively small. News and media companies in particular are excluding the new Apple bot from their websites.
Canadian startup Originality AI examined a sample of 1,000 high-traffic websites. Of these, only around seven percent blocked Apple Bot Extended. A similar analysis from AI agent monitoring service Dark Visitors came in at around six percent.
Taken together, these efforts suggest that the vast majority of website owners either have no objection to Apple’s AI training practices or are simply unaware of the possibility of blocking Applebot-Extended.
However, the percentage is significantly higher for news websites, as an analysis by data journalist Ben Welsh shows. Around a quarter of the 1,167 sites examined, mainly English-language and US-based, block the Apple Bot Extended.
For comparison: 53 percent of news websites block OpenAI’s bot, Google’s bot called Google-Extended is blocked by almost 43 percent of these websites. Welsh explains to Wiredthat the number has “gradually moved upward” since he began his observations.
Expert Welsh cannot explain why some publishers allow AI bots and others do not. He suspects that some companies have licensing agreements in place and are being paid to allow the bots.
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As a tech industry expert, I believe that the decision by renowned US websites to block Apple’s bot from accessing their pages is a concerning development in the AI training space. While it is understandable that companies want to protect their content and ensure fair access to their websites, blocking specific AI bots could have broader implications for the advancement of AI technology.
AI training relies on access to a wide range of data and information in order to learn and improve its capabilities. By blocking certain AI bots, companies may be limiting the ability of these technologies to gather the necessary data to continue evolving and providing valuable services to users.
It is important for companies to find a balance between protecting their content and allowing for the development of AI technologies. Collaboration and open communication between tech companies and website operators will be crucial in ensuring that AI training remains effective and innovative in the future.
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