Dec 4, 2025 5:04 PM

Cloudflare Has Blocked 416 Billion AI Bot Requests Since July 1

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince claims the internet infrastructure company’s efforts to block AI crawlers are already seeing big results.

Cloudflare CEO Matthew PrincePhotograph: Annie Noelker

As the large language models powering generative AI tools slurp up ever more data across the web, Cloudflare cofounder and CEO Matthew Prince said at WIRED’s 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.

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The Big Interview 2025

Former DOGE Engineer Is Now Back in Government
AMD CEO Lisa Su: Concerns About an AI Bubble Are Overblown
Cloudflare Has Blocked 416 Billion AI Bot Requests Since July 1
Anthropic’s Daniela Amodei: The Market Will Reward Safe AI
Jon M. Chu: AI Couldn’t Have Made One of Wicked’s Best Moments
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Lily Hay Newman is a senior writer at WIRED focused on information security, digital privacy, and hacking. She previously worked as a technology reporter at Slate, and was the staff writer for Future Tense, a publication and partnership between Slate, the New America Foundation, and Arizona State University. Her work ... Read More

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