Ask HN: Brave Search API forbids use with AI agents (openclaw, moltbot?)
When I went through Brave's onboarding workflow and tried to subscribe to the free tier, I noticed this in their Terms of Use:
> By subscribing to this plan, you agree to abide by the Terms of Use. These Terms of Use prohibit using responses for AI inference.
Wouldn't an agent using Brave Search responses constitute AI inference? That seems to be exactly what OpenClaw would be doing with the data.
Despite this restriction, there are numerous guides online showing people how to integrate Brave Search with OpenClaw (and similar AI agents).
Is anyone else concerned about this discrepancy? Are people just ignoring these ToS restrictions, or am I misunderstanding what they mean by "AI inference"?
Of course, I used a throwaway laptop without sensitive data to set up OpenClaw.