Recently, OpenAI, the company behind the ground-breaking AI system, ChatGPT has announced that it’s made a web crawler GPTBot.
This is a new development as previously, ChatGPT was using various other bots to index the internet, so webmasters were told to just block all bots, but now you can just work towards blocking just ChatGPT’s new bot.
This comes just a few weeks after authors filed class action lawsuits against OpenAI for plagiarism and a violation of copyright law. So, it’s important for people to be aware of how this can cause issues down the line.
If you’re wanting to keep your content as your own, you should read on and find out how to block ChatGPT from using your website content without permission.
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Why You Should Block ChatGPT
When you make content for your website, you’re putting quite a lot of effort in. You’ve hired a content writer, you’ve optimised the keywords you’ve cultivated a brand voice and you’ve taken the time to oversee the creation of the content, only for it to be stolen by ChatGPT who will then regurgitate it for others who then copy and paste it and use it as their content.
This can be an issue as it means your content can be flagged by search engines such as Google as ‘duplicate content’ which is against its guidelines and can cause massive issues down the line.
For businesses, this is a huge issue, as content is unique and it can be flagged easier when copied.
How to Block Chat GPT Properly
It’s recommended to get access to your Robots.txt file, and this will vary depending on how your website is made. Then all you have to do is copy and paste the code OpenAI has provided to block its web crawler.
Sounds easy right? Well, there are some limitations to this idea of using code.
There Are Limitations to This Approach
Robots.txt has been around for almost 30 years and it’s great, but its not the most complete way to get rid of unwanted bots. This is because it needs more access to the server than creators have.
Robots.txt will be okay if you use Wix, Weebly or WordPress and other such services that allow you to edit your Robots.txt file, but many services such as Squarespace don’t let you edit this file, so you can’t block ChatGPT.
Then there’s other platforms like Medium, Tumblr and Substack where the creator does not even remotely control the server and cannot make any changes, they have to wait for the platform to do it. The same is true for social media sites like Instagram, Facebook and more.
However, beyond all this the biggest issue is actually that you can’t do anything retroactively. What this means is that if your website has been crawled by OpenAI already, if you block it now you can’t remove your existing content from its system. This is the key reason many think it’s not worth it, especially if they have older websites that have been around for over a decade. That’s a lot of content AI already has.
One More Thing!
If you think this is too little too late, you’re right. OpenAI should have implemented this from the day of its inception, but then it wouldn’t have any content to learn from, would it? Instead, this is the best you can do. We do recommend it, but of course it’s personal preference and it depends on your website limitations as well. Having to migrate your whole website just to block AI is a lot of work for a business to take on. This is why we always prefer that you ask for help in this matter.
It’s understandable if you need support with this new aspect of digital marketing. Don’t stress, just get in contact with professionals in the realm of content marketing, Perfect link Building.
Perfect Link Building can help you navigate the complications of AI and chart a course towards protecting your website from AI, while also providing the necessary education to learn more about it.
Contact them today and start navigating the AI world with confidence.
