this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2026
70 points (97.3% liked)

Explain Like I'm Five

22330 readers
21 users here now

Simplifying Complexity, One Answer at a Time!

Rules

  1. Be respectful and inclusive.
  2. No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
  3. Engage in constructive discussions.
  4. Share relevant content.
  5. Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
  6. Use appropriate language and tone.
  7. Report violations.
  8. Foster a continuous learning environment.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
i_stole_ur_taco@lemmy.ca
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
70
ELI5: Why do AI web scrapers take down sites? (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by IndigoGollum@lemmy.world to c/explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world
50 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I'd link to some blog posts about this an example, but the site they're from went down a while ago.

At risk of giving anyone ideas, why do LLM training scrapers request pages from sites millions of times per day instead of just doing the equivalent of wget -r https://example.com/ ? If the point is just stealing things people have written, what do they accomplish by wasting a web host's resources beyond being an ⊛ to webmasters?

Edit: Let me elaborate. A lot of the answers i'm seeing are just restating the problem without explaining why LLM scrapers are apparently all either coded by idiots or assholes. I know that they're hitting sites with unreasonable numbers of requests, wasting bandwidth, and making tools like Anubis too important. I know that's what's happening. I'm asking why. What they gain from not being even a little intelligent about this.

With all the money and effort (and maybe even brainpower) going into this, surely there's some explanation beyond incompetence.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] dgdft@lemmy.world 68 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

You are sitting behind a receptionist’s desk with three coworkers. You need to check people into your office for visits.

Because there are four of you, and people are generally good about queuing, your normal operations run smoothly.

Now fifty people walk into the building at once. They don’t really care about checking in, or even visiting the office. They want to know if you have free coffee, a public bathroom, your elevator inspection on file, the date of your last fire inspection, and dozens more inane questions that aren’t what you’re used to handling. They refuse to wait in a line, they’re talking over one another, and if you take more than ten seconds to answer, they walk out of the building but come back to bother you a few minutes later.

Does your office run well, and can you check in a legitimate visitor in a timely manner still?

[–] bluelabel@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

I would have said the 50+ new people would queue up in a line, but without giving the receptionist a toilet break. The receptionist would be so busy with them that the he can't afford to leave the counter and ends up peeing on the spot, causing the building to be shut down due to hazardous materials.