?? it's their ability to provide more up to date information, ingest specific sources, so it is definitely a competitive advantage to have up to date information
them not paying the content of the sites they index and read out, and not referring anybody to their sites is what will kill the web as we know it.
for a website owner there is zero value of having their content indexed by AI bots. Zilch.
This very much depends on how the site owner makes money. If you’re a journalist or writer it’s an existential threat because not only does it deprive you of revenue but the companies are actively trying to make your job disappear. This is not true of other companies who sell things other than ads (e.g. Toyota and Microsoft would be tickled pink to have AI crawl them more if it meant that bots told their users that those products were better than Ford and Apple’s) and governments around the world would similarly love to have their political views presented favorably by ostensibly neutral AI services.
My point is that you wouldn’t expect any one of them to be so much better than the others at crawling that it would give them an advantage. It’s just overhead. They all have to do it, but it doesn’t put any of them ahead.
> for a website owner there is zero value of having their content indexed by AI bots. Zilch.
Earning money is not the only reason to have a website. Some people just want to distribute information.
And why not?
yes, I just want my hosting costs covered, and that is all. Otherwise you are paying for people to steal the info you "just want to share", the info the others make a profit on... that business model is absurd.