The proliferation of bots harvesting content for AI training is causing alarm among Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAMs). A report from GLAM-E Lab highlights that many institutions have seen a significant rise in bot-related traffic, with 27 out of 39 respondents attributing it directly to AI bots. This surge presents challenges, as it risks escalating operational costs and could potentially take online collections offline. The report notes that existing guidelines like robots.txt are ineffective in curbing this issue, and experiences with the bot surge vary among organizations.
"Bots are widespread, although not universal. Of 43 respondents, 39 had experienced a recent increase in traffic; 27 attributed it to AI training data bots."
"Respondents worry that swarms of AI training data bots will create an environment of unsustainably escalating costs for providing online access to collections."
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