ChatGPT and Google: The Tech Billionaire Taking On AI Companies (Matthew Prince)

Artificial Intelligence is fundamentally changing the internet.
But Matthew Prince, CEO of cybersecurity giant Cloudflare, thinks
there is a way to ensure content creators and publishers earn
enough to operate — even as their work feeds AI.


Cloudflare has put up digital firewalls around its clients’
sites, which blocks the bots that copy content to train large
language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. It
is then up to its customers to choose whether to allow those
so-called AI “crawlers” to access their sites.


Matthew spoke to Amol ahead of his appearance at the Thomson
Reuters Foundation's Trust Conference, about how he hopes his
decision will lead to a better deal for publishers as ‘search
engines’ become ‘answer engines’ in the era of AI overviews and
chatbots.


They also talk about the debate between artists like Sir Elton
John and the UK government over plans to exempt technology firms
from copyright laws.


The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has designated Google
with strategic market status in general search, which includes AI
Overview and AI Mode. But Google says “many of the ideas for
interventions that have been raised in this process would inhibit
UK innovation and growth, potentially slowing product launches at
a time of profound AI-based innovation.” The company also
disputes Matthew’s claim that traffic to websites has fallen
since the launch of AI Overview.


(00:03:52) How the internet is changing


(00:08:05) How AI is reducing web traffic


(00:11:34) Why it's important to compensate content creators


(00:18:50) AI is a platform change


(00:21:38) How AI could improve content creation


(00:26:29) The story behind Cloudflare


(00:31:42) Why he decided to block AI “crawler” bots


(00:42:33) AI and copyright laws in the UK


(00:45:19) Google’s market power


(00:51:37) Advice for becoming a tech entrepreneur


(00:54:01) Amol’s reflections


GET IN TOUCH


* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk


Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday
and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan
Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.
He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before
that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The
Independent.


Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis
Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel
Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Ricardo McCarthy and
Dafydd Evans. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is
Owenna Griffiths.