**Protecting Against AI Scrapers: The Anubis Solution**

As a journalist, it's concerning to see the impact of AI-powered scrapers on websites across the internet. These automated tools are becoming increasingly sophisticated, making it difficult for legitimate users to access the content they need. In response, website administrators have been forced to implement measures like Anubis, a Proof-of-Work scheme designed to protect against these threats.

**What is Anubis?**

Anubis is a system used by website administrators to prevent AI-powered scrapers from accessing their servers. This anti-scraping technology uses a Proof-of-Work scheme, similar to Hashcash, which requires users to complete a small computational task before they can access the website's content. While this may seem like an inconvenience for legitimate users, Anubis is intended as a compromise solution, aiming to strike a balance between protecting against scrapers and ensuring that resources remain accessible.

**How Does Anubis Work?**

Anubis uses JavaScript features, which plugins such as JShelter are known to disable. To bypass this challenge, you must enable JavaScript on your device. This is necessary because AI-powered scrapers have disrupted the social contract around website hosting, making it essential for legitimate users to engage with websites that require JavaScript functionality.

**The Real Purpose of Anubis**

While Anubis appears to be a straightforward anti-scraping solution, its true purpose lies in identifying headless browsers, which are notorious for rendering fonts and other content without rendering them on the client-side. By requiring JavaScript to access certain pages, Anubis is able to detect legitimate users who can render these elements.

**The Catch: Modern Devices Required**

Please note that Anubis requires modern devices with capable hardware and software to handle the computational tasks it imposes. Users relying on older devices or those without compatible browsers may find themselves locked out of accessing certain content.

In conclusion, while Anubis represents an important step in protecting against AI-powered scrapers, its implementation highlights the evolving landscape of website security. As technology continues to advance, we can expect more sophisticated measures like Anubis to emerge.