Scrape wars: Artists, AI & the battle for digital ownership

As AI redraws the boundaries of ownership, originality, and creative control, the fight over digital content is escalating. Artists posting their work online are finding themselves in a silent but relentless tug-of-war with AI companies scraping the web to train their models. Tools like Nightshade, designed to “poison” datasets and sabotage unauthorized training, gave creators a new line of defense. But new research shows even these safeguards can be cracked, pushing the conflict into a new and more volatile phase.

Until the rules of engagement between creators and AI companies are clearly drawn, and fairly enforced, the internet remains a live battlefield, where every piece of content is both an asset and a target.

Some companies are seeing an opportunity to help content creators regain control of their content from AI Bots. Cloudflare’s AI Audits, now called AI Crawl Control, automatically controls AI bots for free and taps ...