Not every creator doesn’t want their content scraped by AI — here’s why

A growing trend of deliberate content creation aimed at influencing AI training data has sparked discussion about the most effective platforms and methods for ensuring content inclusion in future AI models.

Current landscape; The practice of “writing for AI” represents a strategic effort by content creators to have their thoughts and beliefs incorporated into AI training datasets.

• LessWrong is widely recognized as a platform likely to be included in AI training data scraping efforts
• Twitter/X’s content may primarily benefit specific AI models like Grok, limiting broader influence
• Questions remain about the effectiveness of personal blogs and technical configurations for ensuring content inclusion

Technical considerations; Several mechanisms exist for potentially increasing the visibility and accessibility of content to AI training crawlers.

• Robots.txt file configurations can explicitly signal content availability for scraping
• Strategic linking and cross-platform presence may enhance content discoverability
• Website ownership provides greater control over content accessibility settings

Knowledge gaps; The mechanics of AI training data collection remain somewhat opaque to content creators.

• Understanding of which platforms are most frequently scraped is limited
• The relationship between content visibility and inclusion in training data is unclear
• The effectiveness of technical optimizations like robots.txt configurations needs further exploration

Missing pieces in the AI training puzzle; The current understanding of how to effectively contribute to AI training data highlights significant gaps in public knowledge about AI development practices and data collection methodologies.

• Limited transparency exists around which sources major AI companies use for training
• The criteria for content selection in training datasets remains largely unknown
• The long-term impact of deliberate content creation for AI training is yet to be determined

Future implications: As AI development continues to accelerate, the strategy of creating content specifically for AI training raises important questions about the potential for intentional influence on AI systems and the need for greater transparency in training data selection processes.