AI companies' widespread scraping of public web data for training has prompted lawsuits and technical countermeasures. Designers Isaque Seneda and Gabriel Abrucio have introduced ShieldFont, a font that uses ligatures to swap words in the underlying HTML while displaying the original text to human readers.
This means scrapers that parse the source code receive a nonsensical version, reducing the data's value. The designers describe it as a practical opt-out from unauthorized AI training.
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