Perplexity AI exposed for stealthily scraping the web, dodging no-crawl rules

Cloudflare exposes Perplexity AI's stealth crawling tactics. - Perplexity’s crawlers bypass common no-crawl directives (robots.txt) by switching from declared bot user agents to generic browser strings, primarily mimicking Chrome on macOS.\n. - When blocked, Perplexity rotates IP addresses and ASNs outside their official ranges to evade detection, violating ethical web crawling norms.\n. - Cloudflare’s tests with private domains blocking all crawlers still showed Perplexity returning detailed data, indicating covert scraping.\n. - Cloudflare responded by delisting Perplexity as a verified bot and deploying managed rules—available even on free plans—to detect and block these evasive crawlers.\n. - The case highlights tensions between AI companies’ aggressive data harvesting for training and the web ecosystem’s control measures, underscoring the need for transparent bot behavior standards.. . “Objects should shut the f**k up” — critique of excessive device noise. - Modern consumer products like cars, washing machines, and baby monitors produce intrusive, often unnecessary audible alerts with minimal user control or configurability.\n. - Examples include persistent, startling LPG warnings in cars and non-disableable beeps on every washing machine control interaction, increasing user annoyance and potentially reducing safety.\n. - The author's frustrated tone underscores widespread alert fatigue caused by default sounds that prioritize notifications over user context or wellbeing.\n. - Exceptions praised are devices with subtle, considerate alerts, such as dishwashers opening their doors silently after cycles or silent e-readers.\n. - This calls for design philosophies that prioritize user control and reduce noise pollution in everyday technology.. . Could interstellar object 3I/ATLAS be alien technology?. - Researchers analyzed the recently discovered 3I/ATLAS’s unusual orbital dynamics and non-gravitational acceleration, hypothesizing it might be a technological artifact with possible intelligence and intent.\n. - The object’s orbital tilt and trajectories near inner planets are statistically improbable for random interstellar visitors and could enable stealthy Solar System access.\n. - The paper entertains the idea of a “Dark Forest” scenario where advanced civilizations might behave hostilely, suggesting 3I/ATLAS could be benign or malign.\n. - The authors treat the hypothesis primarily as a pedagogical exercise, emphasizing the importance of scientific openness to such testable but speculative ideas.\n. - The study provokes debate on interpreting limited data about interstellar visitors and the implications for SETI and planetary defense.. . ChatGPT in university writing classes: a year-long experiment. - UVA professor Piers Gelly integrated ChatGPT use into his writing curriculum, tasking 72 students to critically engage AI tools rather than banning them.\n. - Students viewed AI skeptically yet pragmatically, using it for brainstorming and editing while recognizing its tendency toward bland and hallucinated content.\n. - Classroom discussions highlighted differences between AI-generated “romanticized” prose and more mundane human writing, sparking reflection on storytelling and creativity.\n. - Faculty found AI useful for grading speed and assignment design, though students largely preferred human feedback; most agreed human instructors remain essential.\n. - The experiment illustrates a nuanced “messy middle” where human creativity and AI support coexist, suggesting collaborative rather than adversarial futures in education....