Le Monde blocks AI bots and grapples with how to handle paying readers using AI agents
By
Jessica Davies
Slow-proofed and worth the wait. Worth its weight in flour.
Summary
Le Monde, the French news publisher, now blocks almost all non-human traffic to its site unless a licensing deal is in place, including Google's AI training crawler Google Extended. CTO Paul Laleu stated the company is "figuring out" how to maintain its subscription partnership with readers who use AI agents instead of accessing content through the homepage or app. The publisher is grappling with the challenge of preserving its subscription model as AI agents increasingly act as intermediaries between readers and content.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledLe Monde blocks almost every bot that tries to hit its site.
The French news publisher now blocks almost all non-human traffic unless there's a licensing deal in place, including Google's AI training crawler Google Extended.
Le Monde CTO Paul Laleu, said the company is 'figuring out' how to maintain its subscription partnership with readers who use AI agents rather than its homepage or app.
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