Robots.txt has failed as a system, if it hadn't we wouldn't have captchas or Cloudflare.
In the age of AI we need to better understand where copyright applies to it, and potentially need reform of copyright to align legislation with what the public wants. We need test cases.
The thing I somewhat struggle with is that after 20-30 years of calls for shorter copyright terms, lesser restrictions on content you access publicly, and what you can do with it, we are now in the situation where the arguments are quickly leaning the other way. "We" now want stricter copyright law when it comes to AI, but at the same time shorter copyright duration...
In many ways an ai.txt would be worse than doing nothing as it's a meaningless veneer that would be ignored, but pointed to as the answer.
Individual high value IP was always much less accessible (not available as a webpage on the internet). Gen AI/LLMs with the internet scale data is too powerful and maybe easier to monetize.