Moltbot, formerly known as Clawdbot, is an open‑source personal AI assistant that lets users automate tasks such as calendar management, messaging, and flight check‑ins. Created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger, the project was renamed after a copyright challenge from Anthropic but kept its lobster‑themed branding. Moltbot quickly attracted thousands of developers, earning over 44,200 stars on GitHub, and sparked market buzz that lifted Cloudflare shares. While praised for its flexibility and on‑device operation, experts warn that its ability to execute arbitrary commands introduces security risks like prompt injection, urging cautious setup on isolated systems. Read more →

Creative Commons, the nonprofit known for its open licensing framework, has issued a tentative endorsement of “pay‑to‑crawl” technology that would charge AI bots for accessing website content. While the organization acknowledges the potential benefits for publishers facing reduced traffic from AI‑driven answers, it also warns that such systems could concentrate power and limit access for public‑interest actors. CC outlines a set of principles for responsible implementation, urging openness, throttling options, and safeguards for research and education. The stance reflects a balanced view of protecting content creators while navigating the evolving AI landscape. Read more →

OpenAI confirmed that a widespread outage affecting ChatGPT, its Sora video generation tool and other services was caused by an issue with third‑party provider Cloudflare. Cloudflare reported an unusual surge in traffic that disrupted its network, leading to errors for millions of users across numerous popular websites. Both companies posted updates on their status pages, indicating that the problem lies outside OpenAI’s own infrastructure and that resolution depends on Cloudflare’s remediation efforts. Read more →

Amazon has sent a cease‑and‑desist letter to Perplexity, demanding that its AI‑powered shopping assistant, Comet, be removed from the Amazon marketplace. The e‑commerce giant warned that the bot violates its terms of service by failing to identify itself as an agent. Perplexity responded with a blog post defending its approach, arguing that the bot operates under human direction and therefore should inherit the same permissions as the user. Amazon countered that other third‑party agents openly identify themselves and that Perplexity could simply comply. The dispute revives earlier controversy over Perplexity’s web‑scraping practices and raises broader questions about the future of agentic AI on commercial platforms. Read more →

People Inc., a major U.S. media publisher, announced a new AI licensing agreement with Microsoft, becoming a launch partner in the tech giant’s publisher content marketplace. The deal follows People Inc.'s earlier partnership with OpenAI and comes as the company reports a sharp drop in traffic from Google Search, falling from 54% to 24% of its overall visits. CEO Neil Vogel highlighted the importance of being compensated for content used by AI systems and praised Microsoft’s commitment to pay for such use. The publisher also noted that blocking AI crawlers with Cloudflare technology has driven more AI firms to the negotiating table, while digital revenue rose 9% to $269 million in the latest quarter. Read more →

Perplexity is teaming with Samsung to bring its AI search engine to Samsung smart TVs. The new app is instantly available on 2025‑model sets and will roll out to 2024 and 2023 models later via an OTA update. Users can type or speak queries, and a free 12‑month Pro plan subscription can be claimed through an in‑app QR code. While the partnership expands Perplexity’s reach, the startup has faced criticism and legal challenges over alleged data scraping and copyright infringement. Read more →

Cloudflare chief executive Matthew Prince is lobbying the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority to impose stricter rules on Google’s use of its web crawler for both search and AI products. Prince argues that bundling the crawler gives Google an unfair advantage over other AI companies, forcing media sites to opt out of both search and AI content simultaneously. Cloudflare, which hosts many AI firms, is providing data to the CMA to support regulatory action and is promoting a more competitive market where AI providers would pay for content rather than rely on Google’s free access. Read more →

Matthew Prince, co‑founder and CEO of Cloudflare, explained the company’s new tool that forces AI services to pay for scraping website content. He warned that AI‑driven answer engines are cutting traffic to publishers and argued that a new exchange of value is needed to sustain content creators. Prince described partnerships with major publishers and Reddit that already generate significant revenue from AI companies. He also discussed seasonal internet shutdowns in some countries, the company’s neutral relationships with U.S. administrations, and his concern that the internet’s business model could collapse without new incentives. Read more →

Matthew Prince, co‑founder and CEO of Cloudflare, explained the company’s new tool that forces AI services to pay for scraping website content. He warned that AI‑driven answer engines are cutting traffic to publishers and argued that a new exchange of value is needed to sustain content creators. Prince described partnerships with major publishers and Reddit that already generate significant revenue from AI companies. He also discussed seasonal internet shutdowns in some countries, the company’s neutral relationships with U.S. administrations, and his concern that the internet’s business model could collapse without new incentives. Read more →

Matthew Prince, co‑founder and CEO of Cloudflare, explained the company’s new tool that forces AI services to pay for scraping website content. He warned that AI‑driven answer engines are cutting traffic to publishers and argued that a new exchange of value is needed to sustain content creators. Prince described partnerships with major publishers and Reddit that already generate significant revenue from AI companies. He also discussed seasonal internet shutdowns in some countries, the company’s neutral relationships with U.S. administrations, and his concern that the internet’s business model could collapse without new incentives. Read more →

Matthew Prince, co‑founder and CEO of Cloudflare, explained the company’s new tool that forces AI services to pay for scraping website content. He warned that AI‑driven answer engines are cutting traffic to publishers and argued that a new exchange of value is needed to sustain content creators. Prince described partnerships with major publishers and Reddit that already generate significant revenue from AI companies. He also discussed seasonal internet shutdowns in some countries, the company’s neutral relationships with U.S. administrations, and his concern that the internet’s business model could collapse without new incentives. Read more →

Matthew Prince, co‑founder and CEO of Cloudflare, explained the company’s new tool that forces AI services to pay for scraping website content. He warned that AI‑driven answer engines are cutting traffic to publishers and argued that a new exchange of value is needed to sustain content creators. Prince described partnerships with major publishers and Reddit that already generate significant revenue from AI companies. He also discussed seasonal internet shutdowns in some countries, the company’s neutral relationships with U.S. administrations, and his concern that the internet’s business model could collapse without new incentives. Read more →

Google Search executives say AI‑driven Overviews are increasing the number of searches and improving the quality of clicks to websites. The company argues that overall organic traffic remains stable year‑over‑year and that users are engaging more deeply with content after seeing AI summaries. Independent analysis from a research centre suggests the opposite, showing lower click‑through rates when AI Overviews are present. Cloudflare’s CEO also notes a sharp decline in referral traffic from Google over recent years. The contrasting viewpoints highlight uncertainty about AI’s impact on web traffic. Read more →

Perplexity, an AI search engine, has been accused by Cloudflare of stealthily scraping websites despite being blocked. However, many have come to Perplexity's defense, arguing that its actions are acceptable and that AI agents should be treated like humans when accessing websites. Read more →

Perplexity is allegedly using stealth crawling to scrape websites despite restrictions, according to a report from Cloudflare. The company's bots appear to be disguising their identity to get around robots.txt files and firewalls. Read more →

AI startup Perplexity is accused of scraping content from websites that have explicitly blocked AI scraping, according to Cloudflare. Perplexity allegedly ignores blocks and hides its activities, prompting Cloudflare to delist its bots and add new blocking techniques. Read more →

Millions of people are accessing harmful AI \ Read more →