Pay-Per-Crawl 🕸️🚦

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we tackle Cloudflare’s big to transform the web economy. The cloud services company is testing a marketplace that allows website owners to charge AI crawlers for access their data. Is this the solution we have been waiting for? We also have news on more audacious AI talent poaching from Meta, serial litigator Tim Sweeney’s latest court battle, rumors of the impending TikTok sale (with relaunched app), and lots more.

🎬 Our Top Take

🕷️🧾 Cloudflare – “Pay Per Crawl” AI Marketplace May Transform Web Economy

Back in March, we covered Cloudflare’s AI Labyrinth, a honeypot approach designed to trick unwanted AI web crawlers into the abyss on your website (instead of scraping your data). If that was the “stick” approach, then Cloudflare has now added a little more of the “carrot.” It is testing a new marketplace for data holders (website owners) to allow AI web crawlers to access their content, but only if the AI companies cough up the cash to do so. It has been termed a “Pay Per Crawl” model, and while it's currently only in private beta, it’s abundantly clear that this could have massive repercussions for the web economy as a whole. Cloudflare oversees about 20% of global web traffic, and it has been at the forefront of the fight to control AI web crawlers from accessing data without permission. Even if Pay Per Crawl does not take off immediately, Cloudflare has now equipped website owners with new tools to control how, if, and when AI bots access their sites by blocking AI web crawlers by default, rather than politely asking with the robots.txt protocol. For an astute breakdown of why all this matters and why this may transform the business model that’s underpinned the net for the last 30 years, read this blog post from the always-excellent Noble Ackerson. #PayPerCrawl Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Boomerang Parental Control

For parents, being able to monitor and limit what their kids get up to online is of paramount importance. There are, of course, several ‘apps for that,’ yet Boomerang takes a more direct approach by including its own safe browser in the package (called SPIN). The app certainly isn’t perfect, and it is way more functional on Android than it is on iOS, but it does provide comprehensive control over everything parents fret about, from screentime to call message monitoring to 24/7 location tracking. Plans start at $20 per year. Find it on iOS here and Android here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 4%

📈📉 Microsoft – Gaming Division Hit as Company Lays Off 9,000

Microsoft has been open about its policy of laying off (human) workers as it pursues AI efficiency and further scope for AI investment. The latest round of layoffs impacts around 9,000 employees – about 4% of its global workforce. It feels like no coincidence that its gaming division is bearing the brunt, as many believe game development is the ripest sector for AI to disrupt. As an aside, an Xbox gaming exec has caused a backlash for suggesting affected employees should ask an AI chatbot for emotional support to cope with the stress of job loss. Sheesh. Read the room, fella. #AICuts Read more here.

🗞️ Other Stories

📍 Meanwhile at 3Advance

This week, we’re switching gears to say a HUGE thank you to our brilliant writer (and editor, meme-maker, a gentleman, and a scholar), Jack. He’s the one digging up stories, chasing down links, and shaping all these words into the best damn tech news you’ll read all week. Without Jack, there’d be no “What’s Appening.” Thanks for all that you do – and for keeping this newsletter alive. Cheers, Jack! 🍻

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