"One of the earliest debates our internal AI committee had was about whether we should allow AI to index our articles or not. Most of the people on the committee thought we should block AI crawlers. While the fury of media copyright lawsuits had yet to begin, the issue had gotten some traction, and it was easy to make the case that we shouldn't give our content away to AI companies to summarize unless we were compensated in some way."
"Little did I know that largely academic debate at the time would become the centerpiece of the AI conversation nearly three years later. Today, information presence in AI summaries-for brands, for public relations, and for the media-is of great interest, and poorly understood. For publishers, the issues of copyright and compensation are ongoing. But regardless of how those conflicts are resolved, AI has become the primary interpreter of their content for a large and growing audience."
Internal debate focused on whether to block AI crawlers or allow indexing, balancing copyright concerns and potential compensation against visibility. Many favored blocking to avoid giving content to AI companies without payment. One perspective recommended allowing indexing to maintain presence in AI-driven search and to preserve authority over narratives, warning that exclusion would cede consensus and referrals to competitors. Over time, AI indexing became central to how audiences encounter summarized information. Publishers now face unresolved copyright and compensation challenges, while AI increasingly functions as the primary interpreter of publisher content for a growing audience.
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