Xe Iaso's Anubis is an open-source software designed to protect websites from AI-powered bot scrapers that collect data for training models. After experiencing her own Git server being overwhelmed by these bots, Iaso developed Anubis to block their requests and ensure websites function smoothly. Anubis verifies website visitors are human using cryptographic JavaScript challenges, which are invisible to users and don't require explicit CAPTCHA solving.
This approach creates a computational cost that's prohibitively expensive for AI scrapers, but marginal for individual users. Since its launch in January 2025, Anubis has been downloaded nearly 200,000 times and is being used by notable organizations, including UNESCO, FFmpeg, and GNOME. The software is gaining traction in the open-source community for preserving small websites and online resources.
However, Anubis requires ongoing maintenance to stay ahead of AI bot scrapers. Iaso is working on improvements, including a non-cryptographic challenge to reduce CPU load, and is seeking funding to support full-time development and hire additional contributors. As AI-powered scraping continues to grow, Anubis offers a promising solution for protecting websites and preserving the integrity of online content.
