What happened
On July 23, 2026, Reps. Laurel Lee (R-FL), Valerie Foushee (D-NC), and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) introduced the bipartisan Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would require automated web crawlers (including AI-powered crawlers used for generative AI training/data collection) to accurately identify themselves and disclose their purpose when accessing websites. It prohibits deceptive 'stealth bots' that misrepresent their identity or impersonate human users, and authorizes the FTC to enforce compliance through civil penalties. The bill is backed by major publishers (News Corp, Condé Nast, NYT, Hearst, Vox Media, Reddit) and mirrors New York's recently passed Stealth Crawler Prohibition Act.
Why it matters
This creates a nationalized federal standard for AI training-data web-scraping transparency, directly affecting how AI labs collect training data from the open web, and gives the FTC new enforcement authority specific to AI crawler conduct.
Action needed
AI developers using web crawlers for training-data collection should review crawler identification/disclosure practices in anticipation of federal disclosure mandates and potential FTC civil-penalty exposure.