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Experts Exchange takes a stand against AI-creep by blocking companies from scraping content and data from its community

Experts Exchange.

In the early days of the internet, it was touted as “The Information Superhighway”. A series of connections that would give people around the globe the opportunity to connect and communicate in ways that would change us all. In some ways, that came to fruition, with humans worldwide logging on to create videos, blog posts, and communities that answer questions from “How do I program my own browser plugins” to “How do I build my first PC?” 

Today, the forums and communities where these questions are asked and subsequently answered by our 

fellow humans are at risk. Companies behind rapidly advancing Artificial Intelligence technology are scraping massive quantities of data and content from across the internet, throwing that information into a machine to “train” large language models, and then making bank when those models regurgitate the information back. Some companies that hold the communities most frequently targeted for LLM-scraping are gleefully partnering with AI companies, selling out their communities and betraying the creators behind their vast databases of knowledge. 

Not all companies are turning their backs on the humans behind Q&A communities. Experts Exchange has committed to authentic human-to-human interactions. The community is built on a platform that believes in the idea that conversing with a human expert will always be the superior solution to solving problems. 

Avoiding the dangers of AI with Experts Exchange

“The dangers of AI” can sound a little like “the sky is falling”, but there are real-life implications and dangers to embracing AI technology trained on large language models that have scraped data and content from communities with little to no context. There has been a rash of news headlines lately detailing how an AI search engine trained on large language models was providing potentially harmful answers to basic questions, including encouraging the searching parties to ingest rocks and glue. These kinds of mistakes can be eliminated when there’s an opportunity for human connection. 

Experts Exchange is a private Q&A community for tech professionals, filled with contributors who are experts in areas ranging from programming and coding to hardware to cybersecurity. Real humans, ready to answer even the hardest question, without advising you to eat rocks. The community is inviting and welcoming, and love to help spread knowledge. You don’t even have to worry about repeating a question, duplicates are welcome.

No large language models or data scraping allowed

Some Q&A companies put strict limits in place on how users can interact with their content after it has been submitted. This prevents users from deleting questions or removing their answers if they do not want their contributions used to train large language models. Experts Exchange doesn’t have this problem, because the company is committed to blocking and prohibiting AI companies from scraping content to train large language models. The answers you receive on Experts Exchange are also guaranteed to come from actual human experts, and AI-generated answers in their threads are strictly forbidden. Their moderators work tirelessly to ensure that the questions and answers on Experts Exchange are from their community of developers and IT professionals, small business owners, and IT leaders who want to help their fellow tech enthusiasts. 

The content you create and the data you share with Experts Exchange will never be sold to AI companies looking to profit at the expense of your trust and safety. Experts Exchange has been a privately owned operation without the headache outside investors bring since 2001. Your information, your data, your content, your likeness—the Experts Exchange community—is not for sale.

Try Experts Exchange for yourself for free—no credit card required

You may be wondering how Experts Exchange stays afloat without the backing of investors or giving in to the blank checks written by AI scrapers. Experts Exchange is made possible by memberships paid for by the community. Experts Exchange users can either subscribe for a small fee, or apply for expert status - which is free if they are approved. Experts contribute answers in exchange for free access. This fee helps to foster and grow a one-of-a-kind community free from AI data collection and stolen content, while helping the community to further grow and improve. Want to try before you buy in? You can sign up for a 90 day free trial, and you don’t even need a credit card.

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