[esafak]

Why would they want an LLM to slurp their web site to help some analyst create a report about the cost of widgets? If they value the data they can pay for it. If not, they don't need to slurp it, right? This goes for training data too.

[michaelmrose]

The alternative is the AI only telling customers about competitors wares

[esafak]

That's for the publisher to decide. Your argument reminds me of the old chestnut "We're paying you in publicity!"

[michaelmrose]

In your example the person is receiving something of tangible value and expecting to pay in near worthless coin.

In the circumstances the merchant would be expecting to receive a valuable service and simultaneously get paid for getting serviced.

More akin to Google paying to index you or going to a lady of the evening and holding your hand out for a tip after.