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As the large<\/span> language models powering generative AI tools slurp up ever more data across the web, Cloudflare<\/a> cofounder and CEO Matthew Prince<\/a> said at WIRED\u2019s Big Interview event in San Francisco on Thursday that the internet infrastructure company has blocked more than 400 billion AI bot requests for its customers since July 1.<\/p>\n The action comes after the company announced a Content Independence Day in July\u2014an initiative<\/a> with prominent publishers and AI firms to block AI crawlers by default on content creators\u2019 work unless the AI companies pay for access. Since July 2024, Cloudflare has offered customers tools to block<\/a> AI bots from scraping their content. Cloudflare told WIRED that the number of AI bots blocked since July 1, 2025 is 416 billion.<\/p>\n \u201cThe business model of the internet has always been to generate content that drives traffic [to a website] and then sell either things, subscriptions, or ads,\u201d Prince told WIRED\u2019s executive editor, Brian Barrett. \u201cWhat I think people don’t realize, though, is that AI is a platform shift. The business model of the internet is about to change dramatically. I don’t know what it’s going to change to, but it’s what I’m spending almost every waking hour thinking about.\u201d<\/p>\n As a company, Cloudflare\u2019s offerings are geared toward making it faster and safer to access content online. But as the AI industry has exploded and AI giants have emerged, Prince says he\u2019s become increasingly focused on how Cloudflare can leverage its position to discourage consolidation and safeguard the internet as a place where businesses and creators of every size can survive\u2014or, ideally, thrive.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to be able to make sure that businesses large and small flourish on a fair playing ground,\u201d Prince said. \u201cThat is the future that we’re trying to play for. That’s the best thing for our business, because that’s more people to be customers of ours. That’s more internet for us to be able to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n Prince specifically highlighted concerns about Google\u2019s policies around its search and AI crawlers. As a major AI player jostling for dominance, Google combined its search and AI crawlers into one, so blocking its AI scraper also blocks a site\u2019s ability to be indexed in Google search. The move has put content creators in a bind, because they don\u2019t want AI models to train on their creations, but they typically need their place in Google search to help audiences find their material.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can’t opt out of one without opting out of both, which is a real challenge\u2014it’s crazy,\u201d Prince said. \u201cIt shouldn’t be that you can use your monopoly position of yesterday in order to leverage and have a monopoly position in the market of tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n