Buckle up, because 2024 promises a web data shakeup. Powerful Large Language Models (LLMs) are poised to rewrite the rules, “rewriting” content access and monetization. Legal battles will crackle, subscription walls will rise, and alternative data sources will bubble up.
Get ready for our top predictions on how this data showdown will unfold – in the data-driven frontier of 2024.
Prediction #1: Increased protection of web content
One of the trends we’re likely to see is content owners becoming increasingly concerned about protecting their intellectual property as powerful language models like Open AI’s GPT-4 and Google’s Gemini gain access to massive amounts of web data. Expect to see a rise in the use of robots.txt and WAF, to prevent crawlers from accessing their website content. This trend marks a significant shift in how online content is shared and accessed.
Prediction #2: The rise in legal challenges
The expanding capabilities and applications of LLMs are also giving rise to a wave of lawsuits against companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. These lawsuits often revolve around allegations of copyright infringement. However, a critical prediction for 2024 is that most of these lawsuits will fail. The argument is that there isn’t a substantial legal basis for claims that LLMs infringe on copyright law, primarily because the legal framework around this technology is still in its infancy.
Prediction #3: Content licensing by LLM companies
Another trend we’re likely to see in response to these challenges is that some LLM companies will start licensing content. This approach, however, is predicted to be limited in scope due to the sheer scale required for such operations. Licensing will likely be reserved for specific use cases rather than being a widespread solution for accessing web data.
Prediction #4: The rise of paywalls and subscription bundles
An interesting development in the web content domain is the predicted shift towards paywalls, especially by news publishers. As efforts like robots.txt and other Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) fail to offer adequate protection, more publishers are expected to place their content behind paywalls. This change, however, comes with its own set of challenges. The general public is unlikely to subscribe to multiple news sources, leading to a potential decrease in the accessibility of quality news.
In response, a novel solution is anticipated to emerge – a consolidated subscription model akin to Spotify or Apple Music but for news. This model would allow users to access a variety of news sources under a single subscription. While high-quality news would be gated, lower-quality content might remain freely accessible to attract traffic and encourage subscriptions to premium content.
Web Data in 2024: A seismic shift awaits
One thing’s for sure, 2024 is set to be a big year for web data. As LLMs continue to evolve and become more integrated into our digital lives, it opens up new frontiers for content owners, legal systems, and the news industry who will all shape the future of how we access and interact with online information. These seismic changes will have profound and lasting implications for content creators, consumers, and technology companies alike.
Are you ready to take on these challenges and looking for big web data in 2024? Contact us and let’s get the ball rolling.
