[LINK] AI is eating website traffic, websites are blocking AI – and reliable information is getting harder to find

[Antony Barry]

The article argues that AI search is undermining the web’s old bargain:
publishers allowed search engines to crawl and index their work in exchange
for referral traffic, but AI summaries increasingly answer users’ questions
without sending them to the original sites. That reduces publishers’
revenue while AI crawlers can impose substantial hosting costs.[
theconversation
<https://theconversation.com/ai-is-eating-website-traffic-websites-are-blocking-ai-and-reliable-information-is-getting-harder-to-find-289817?utm_campaign=science-39337&utm_content=science-39337_au%7C151%7C39337%7C9ab03b48&utm_medium=email&utm_source=braze&utm_term=AI+is+eating+website+traffic%2C+websites+are+blocking+AI+%E2%80%93+and+reliable+information+is+getting+harder+to+find>
]
The feedback loop

As sites lose traffic, more are blocking AI crawlers. The authors warn this
could leave AI systems disproportionately reliant on lower-quality sites,
including AI-generated content and misinformation, because such sites are
less likely to restrict scraping.[theconversation
<https://theconversation.com/ai-is-eating-website-traffic-websites-are-blocking-ai-and-reliable-information-is-getting-harder-to-find-289817?utm_campaign=science-39337&utm_content=science-39337_au%7C151%7C39337%7C9ab03b48&utm_medium=email&utm_source=braze&utm_term=AI+is+eating+website+traffic%2C+websites+are+blocking+AI+%E2%80%93+and+reliable+information+is+getting+harder+to+find>
]

They cite the prospect of “Google Zero”: referral traffic from Google
shrinking sharply as users accept AI Overviews instead of clicking through.
The article notes reported declines in Wikipedia traffic following
AI-summary rollouts and says blocked publishers may also be cited less in
AI answers.[theconversation
<https://theconversation.com/ai-is-eating-website-traffic-websites-are-blocking-ai-and-reliable-information-is-getting-harder-to-find-289817?utm_campaign=science-39337&utm_content=science-39337_au%7C151%7C39337%7C9ab03b48&utm_medium=email&utm_source=braze&utm_term=AI+is+eating+website+traffic%2C+websites+are+blocking+AI+%E2%80%93+and+reliable+information+is+getting+harder+to+find>
]
Why it matters

The likely short-term result, the authors say, is poorer AI-search
reliability: fewer high-quality primary sources enter the system, while
more model output may be based on synthetic material, raising the risk of
“model collapse.”[theconversation
<https://theconversation.com/ai-is-eating-website-traffic-websites-are-blocking-ai-and-reliable-information-is-getting-harder-to-find-289817?utm_campaign=science-39337&utm_content=science-39337_au%7C151%7C39337%7C9ab03b48&utm_medium=email&utm_source=braze&utm_term=AI+is+eating+website+traffic%2C+websites+are+blocking+AI+%E2%80%93+and+reliable+information+is+getting+harder+to+find>
]

Cloudflare’s planned default blocking of AI crawlers on ad-supported pages
is presented as a significant escalation, potentially excluding a large
share of major websites from AI-overview ecosystems unless compensation
arrangements emerge.[theconversation
<https://theconversation.com/ai-is-eating-website-traffic-websites-are-blocking-ai-and-reliable-information-is-getting-harder-to-find-289817?utm_campaign=science-39337&utm_content=science-39337_au%7C151%7C39337%7C9ab03b48&utm_medium=email&utm_source=braze&utm_term=AI+is+eating+website+traffic%2C+websites+are+blocking+AI+%E2%80%93+and+reliable+information+is+getting+harder+to+find>
]
Practical advice

The article’s advice is straightforward: do not treat an AI summary as the
endpoint of research. Scroll to conventional results, open and assess the
underlying sources, and consider search services that rely less on AI
crawling; this both supports source publishers and gives you a better
chance of finding accurate, contextual information.[theconversation
<https://theconversation.com/ai-is-eating-website-traffic-websites-are-blocking-ai-and-reliable-information-is-getting-harder-to-find-289817?utm_campaign=science-39337&utm_content=science-39337_au%7C151%7C39337%7C9ab03b48&utm_medium=email&utm_source=braze&utm_term=AI+is+eating+website+traffic%2C+websites+are+blocking+AI+%E2%80%93+and+reliable+information+is+getting+harder+to+find>
]
https://theconversation.com/ai-is-eating-website-traffic-websites-are-blocking-ai-and-reliable-information-is-getting-harder-to-find-289817?utm_campaign=science-39337&utm_content=science-39337_au%7C151%7C39337%7C9ab03b48&utm_medium=email&utm_source=braze&utm_term=AI+is+eating+website+traffic%2C+websites+are+blocking+AI+%E2%80%93+and+reliable+information+is+getting+harder+to+find
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Mob:04 3365 2400 Email: antonybbarry at gmail.com, antonybbarry at me.com