A New Font Gives AI Scrapers Nonsense While Keeping Webpages Readable for Humans

To counter AI companies scraping public websites for training data, designers Isaque Seneda and Gabriel Abrucio have created ShieldFont, a tool that offers publishers a practical opt-out from unauthorized AI training. The font uses ligatures to render the intended words on screen while leaving nonsensical substitute text in the underlying HTML for scrapers to read. The designers say ShieldFont is meant to disrupt what is collected when that opt-out choice is ignored.