What is AI2Bot? AI crawler guide
AI2Bot by Allen Institute for AI: Allen Institute for AI crawler used to find web content for open language model datasets. Check its reported user-agent, robots.txt behavior, source, and verification guidance.
Allen Institute for AI crawler used to find web content for open language model datasets.
What is AI2Bot?
AI2Bot is a web crawler operated by the Allen Institute for AI. It collects publicly available web content to build open datasets used for training language models. The crawler identifies itself with the user-agent token AI2Bot and respects the Robots Exclusion Protocol, meaning it follows rules set in robots.txt files. Its activity is part of AI2's mission to advance artificial intelligence research through open and accessible resources.
What it's for
For a site owner, AI2Bot's visits mean your content may be included in open training datasets for language models developed by the Allen Institute for AI. This could contribute to AI research and development, potentially improving AI systems that are openly available. If you prefer your content not be used for this purpose, you can block the bot.
AI2Bot collects pages for model training. Training inclusion is not the same as being cited, so measure where AI answers actually cite your site before drawing conclusions from crawl logs.
How to handle AI2Bot
To prevent AI2Bot from crawling your site, add a rule in your robots.txt file that disallows the user-agent token AI2Bot. The bot honors robots.txt directives, so a simple disallow rule will stop it from accessing your content. No other technical measures are required.
robots.txt rule
User-agent: AI2Bot Disallow: /
Blocking cost
Blocking AI2Bot may prevent your content from being included in open language model training datasets, which could reduce your site's visibility in AI-generated answers or citations derived from those models.
Examples
- AI2Bot crawls a public blog and includes the text in an open dataset for language model training.
- A news website allows AI2Bot, and its articles become part of a corpus used to improve AI2's open models.
- A site blocks AI2Bot via robots.txt, and the bot skips crawling, so the site's content is not added to the dataset.
Related bots
- Ai2Bot-Dolma: Another Allen Institute for AI training crawler to compare.
- CCBot: Also tracked as a training crawler.
- LAIONDownloader: Also tracked as a training crawler.
- TerraCotta: Also tracked as a training crawler.
- GPTBot: Also tracked as a training crawler.
- MistralAI-Training: Also tracked as a training crawler.
- img2dataset: Also tracked as a training crawler.
- ClaudeBot: Also tracked as a training crawler.
- KimiBot: Also tracked as a training crawler.
- AI Training Opt-Out: AI2Bot is a training crawler tied to this policy decision.
- Robots.txt: Robots.txt is the control file used to allow or block AI2Bot.
- SBIntuitionsBot: Also tracked as a training crawler.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does AI2Bot do?
AI2Bot is a crawler from the Allen Institute for AI that gathers web content to create open datasets for training language models.
Does AI2Bot follow robots.txt rules?
Yes, AI2Bot honors the Robots Exclusion Protocol and will obey disallow directives in your robots.txt file.
How can I stop AI2Bot from crawling my site?
You can block AI2Bot by adding a User-agent: AI2Bot line followed by a Disallow: / directive in your robots.txt file.
Will blocking AI2Bot affect my site's visibility in AI tools?
Blocking AI2Bot may prevent your content from being used in open language model training, which could reduce the chance of your site appearing in AI-generated outputs based on those models.
Who operates AI2Bot?
AI2Bot is operated by the Allen Institute for AI, a research organization focused on artificial intelligence.
Data & Sources
- Allen Institute for AI documentation - Primary source for AI2Bot crawler details.