{"id":8851,"date":"2023-03-30T18:52:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T18:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/should-you-block-chatgpts-web-browser-plugin-from-accessing-your-website\/"},"modified":"2023-03-30T18:52:40","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T18:52:40","slug":"should-you-block-chatgpts-web-browser-plugin-from-accessing-your-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/should-you-block-chatgpts-web-browser-plugin-from-accessing-your-website\/","title":{"rendered":"Should you block ChatGPT\u2019s web browser plugin from accessing your website?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since ChatGPT launched, the debate around the \u201cfair use\u201d of public website content for AI training \u2013 and whether this is plagiarism \u2013 has raged. <\/p>\n<p>That debate has only gotten louder and more intense since OpenAI <a href=\"https:\/\/openai.com\/blog\/chatgpt-plugins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">announced<\/a> ChatGPT plugins on March 23.<\/p>\n<p>One of OpenAI\u2019s plugins is an official ChatGPT-hosted web browser. It will allow their models to read information directly from the internet. <\/p>\n<p>Since we still see daily posts and tweets and prompt examples claiming otherwise, it\u2019s worth repeating here: <\/p>\n<p>The current instance of ChatGPT <strong>cannot<\/strong> access anything on the internet. <\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t use a database or store content from websites like a search engine does in an index. <\/p>\n<p>What this means is that, without a plugin, ChatGPT is still stuck in 2021, predicting the next word based on its old training data.<\/p>\n<p>Even the current Bing implementation is (in a simplified explanation) pulling keywords from your prompt, doing a Bing search, feeding in the results that would appear for that keyword, and then asking the AI to \u201csummarize\u201d those results.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s how plugins are going to change everything.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>Pretty soon, ChatGPT will be able to feed in content from third-party websites for the AI to summarize or manipulate \u2013 the same way Bing is doing.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>Many third-party plugins and tools can already scrape content from a website, feed it into a prompt to the OpenAI API, and summarize or manipulate that text. <\/p>\n<p>However, with an official web browser plugin, this usage is about to increase drastically.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_81 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/should-you-block-chatgpts-web-browser-plugin-from-accessing-your-website\/#You_can_block_OpenAIs_ChatGPT-User_bot\" >You can block OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT-User bot<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/should-you-block-chatgpts-web-browser-plugin-from-accessing-your-website\/#Should_we_block_the_OpenAI_bot_from_accessing_our_websites\" >Should we block the OpenAI bot from accessing our websites?\u00a0<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/should-you-block-chatgpts-web-browser-plugin-from-accessing-your-website\/#Take_a_wait-and-see_approach\" >Take a wait-and-see approach<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/30\/should-you-block-chatgpts-web-browser-plugin-from-accessing-your-website\/#We_need_to_think_long_term\" >We need to think long term<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"You_can_block_OpenAIs_ChatGPT-User_bot\"><\/span>You can block OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT-User bot<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>OpenAI has given us details about their bot \u2013 including <a href=\"https:\/\/platform.openai.com\/docs\/plugins\/bot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">how to block it<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth noting that OpenAI will behave just like any other bot, following the robots protocol. It will assume it can access content unless it\u2019s specifically told otherwise in a robots.txt file.<\/p>\n<p>OpenAI and ChatGPT won\u2019t crawl the web like a search engine. And, as far as we can tell, they aren\u2019t using this data for training (yet?). All requests will be the result of a direct request from a user. <\/p>\n<p>Another fun fact: it does this using the Bing search API. This likely means that if Bing can\u2019t see the content on your website, neither will ChatGPT.<\/p>\n<p>This brings us to a question I have seen a lot lately:\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Should_we_block_the_OpenAI_bot_from_accessing_our_websites\"><\/span>Should we block the OpenAI bot from accessing our websites?\u00a0<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The citation\/plagiarism\/sources\/copyright debate has been raging for a while and could easily take 20,000 words to dig into.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>My short answer: No.<\/p>\n<p>Most websites shouldn\u2019t block AI from accessing your website. Let\u2019s dig deeper into why.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Take_a_wait-and-see_approach\"><\/span>Take a wait-and-see approach<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>We shouldn\u2019t block any new technology until we have enough data to make an informed decision. <\/p>\n<p>Sure, some copyright issues could be at play, but AI plugins could also become a new source of discovery and traffic.<\/p>\n<p>OpenAI says it will cite sources when plugins pull data from third-party websites. This means there will definitely be potential to get clicks from ChatGPT if a user pulls in your content. <\/p>\n<p>Blocking access only means that ChatGPT (or your user) will cite somebody else\u2019s website.<\/p>\n<p>Many people having this debate start with the flawed assumption that if people can\u2019t get the content from ChatGPT, then they\u2019ll have to visit the website. <\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t think that\u2019s true.\u00a0The reality is that they\u2019ll get the content from your competitor.<\/p>\n<p>Given how many people are using ChatGPT for content creation these days, there\u2019s a decent chance that if somebody uses the tool to pull content from your website, they might link to you wherever they post the output. You\u2019ll be passing up this chance if you block it.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"We_need_to_think_long_term\"><\/span>We need to think long term<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>I remember having similar conversations about iPhone apps and the app store when it first came out in 2008. <\/p>\n<p>The app store changed the interface of mobile phones. Sure, you could (and still can) do most of what an app can do with a website, but the app store is where people went to find and discover websites.<\/p>\n<p>AI will have a similar effect in changing the internet\u2019s user interface. <\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t going to kill search engines. <\/p>\n<p>However, AI will be a new starting point for many web users. That means plugins might be your only opportunity to reach these users.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We need to start thinking of AI as a new acquisition channel \u2013 just like we do with search, social and retail platforms or app stores.<\/p>\n<p>The time to start thinking about your AI and AI plugin strategy was last week. Most marketers are already behind \u2013 but it isn\u2019t too late!<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/block-chatgpt-accessing-website-395088\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Should you block ChatGPT\u2019s web browser plugin from accessing your website?<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Search Engine Land<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since ChatGPT launched, the debate around the \u201cfair use\u201d of public website content for AI training \u2013 and whether this is plagiarism \u2013 has raged. That debate has only gotten louder and more intense since OpenAI announced ChatGPT plugins on March 23. One of OpenAI\u2019s plugins is an official ChatGPT-hosted web browser. It will allow their models to read information directly from the internet. Since we still see daily posts and tweets and prompt examples claiming otherwise, it\u2019s worth repeating here: The current instance of ChatGPT [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"h5ap_radio_sources":[],"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-seo-blogs"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":false,"author_link":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/author\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8851\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}