Since when can you block AI bots?

The landscape of copywriting with ChatGPT and AI, in general, is still unclear because the world is still catching up with the changes AI has brought about. 

I liken this to the advent of the internet. When the internet became accessible to everyone it was still a ‘wild west’ of opportunity. Nothing was regulated and analog-world legislators didn’t know whether it was even possible to regulate it properly. The same happened with social media. Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Social Media platforms became better regulated.

Because it affects so many businesses that have the financial power to sue, it’s likely that AI will be regulated more quickly than the internet or social media were – having a precedent helps. It’s in everyone’s interest to do so.

At the beginning of August 2023, ChatGPT creators OpenAI released information about how to block the ChatGPT bot from crawling your site and using it to train their bot. This happened because of the many lawsuits OpenAI and similar Apps are facing from people whose content, books and data have been used to train AI bots without prior consent.

When was ChatGPT created? And what can it do today?

GPT-1: The original GPT-1 model was released by OpenAI in June 2018. GPT-2: GPT-2 was introduced in February 2019. Initially, OpenAI withheld the full release of GPT-2 due to concerns about its potential misuse.

GPT-3: the most well-known version in the series, was unveiled in June 2020. This version was mainly appreciated for its text-generation capability. ChatGPT became a consumer-facing service in late 2022. It attracted over 50 million users in the first month, making it one of the fastest-growing consumer services in history.

GPT-3.5 This is the current version of ChatGPT, You can also access ChatGPT 4 for a monthly fee of $20.

The main difference between the two versions is that ChatGPT 4 is not free and has:

– Much more finesse in understanding language

– Is capable of Creativity

– Is capable of complex problem-solving

– Has much more advanced programming capability

– Promises fewer inappropriate or biased responses

– Image generation capability using DALL-E (not free)

Should I block chat GPT from crawling my site?

Blocking the ChatGPT bot from crawling your website is a good way to protect your information. Especially if you have been writing original content that is not easily found elsewhere on the internet it might be a good idea to block it. I know I will be doing that.

Whether you block it or not depends greatly on the type of content you create. My content is original and offers a different perspective on marketing for coaches and the coaching industry at large.

I will therefore block it because it’s likely that my ideas get diluted or misunderstood by ChatGPT and my content will not be credited.

I have currently no intention of blocking Google Bard (which is Google’s AI bot) either. I believe Google will credit websites for their contribution in its final iterations when it launches Bard worldwide. I also want Google on my side because that’s where I get 99% of my clients.

How to block the Chat GPT bot

Step 1.  Log into your hosting account and Find your file manager

Step 2.  Locate the robots.txt file inside the Public_html folder (or default folder)

Step 3.  Download a backup of the original robots.txt file

Step 4.  Add the code/text provided below to the file
Step 5.   Save and upload the file back to the server (overwrite the old/original robots.txt file)

Here’s the Robots text to copy:

Block all the website content

User-agent: GPTBot

Disallow: /

Or just some of it

User-agent: GPTBot

Allow: /directory_name/

Disallow: /directory_name/

Feel a bit lost? Watch the video below to see how to locate the right file on your hosting panel and edit it correctly.