Cloudflare lets you say no to AI training without disappearing from Google

If you have a website, you've so far faced a dilemma: agree to let AI companies train on your content, or risk disappearing from search engines. That's because some of the biggest players use the same bot for both: if you reject one, you automatically reject the other.

Cloudflare is now solving that problem with a new setting called "Disallow AI Training." It lets you be found in Google and similar search engines while saying no to your content being used for AI training.

Apple, Google and Microsoft have already promised to respect the setting (some with a deadline for when it will be fully implemented). Cloudflare calls them "Accountable," meaning trustworthy players that provide insight into and control over how your content is used.

The numbers show why it makes sense: almost no website owners (under 1 percent) want to be blocked from search engines, but 17 percent have already tried to block AI training in one way or another.

A simple text file (robots.txt) hasn't been enough until now, because it can't stop a bot that chooses to ignore it. Cloudflare, on the other hand, can identify and actually block the bots that don't follow the rules.

The next step will be control over AI summaries, meaning how much of your content is used in AI-generated answers, not just whether it's used. Cloudflare expects to launch that early next year.

If you have a website through Cloudflare and want to protect your content against AI training, you can safely turn on the setting right now: it won't cost you visibility in search. If you don't have a website yourself, the news is mostly relevant as background knowledge: it's becoming easier for companies to decide what AI companies may use their content for.

What it means for you

If you have a website through Cloudflare, you can turn on "Disallow AI Training" right now: it won't cost you visibility in Google and other search engines. If you don't run a website yourself, the news simply shows that it's generally becoming easier for companies to decide what AI companies may use their content for. If you want to keep up, watch for the control over AI summaries, which Cloudflare expects to launch early next year.