Saturday 20th May, 2023 - AI Magic Wonderland To Deprecate World Wide Web (Issue #115)
Another week of great javascript, tech and web development links
Hello and welcome to my newsletter!
Another season 2 instalment…
Note: I had to update the issue numbering because some of the initial issues were not included. This was first published as issue #97, updated to issue #115.
The big news for me this week is I got some new gear. I have no idea if last week’s newsletter is the reason for it, but the universe brought me some reading glasses and a new backpack. Both very awesome.
I’m still getting used to the reading glasses. Turned out my eyesight had deteriorated much more than I thought. The detail I can now see in the icons on my iOS device is quite something. I had totally gotten used to them being completely blurry. I literally didn’t know there was an entire universe of detail that I couldn’t see. I can now also see the screen in low light conditions, which I couldn’t previously.
It’s such a big shift my brain is finding it difficult to get used to the enormous difference when I take them off after using them for several hours, but also it seems to be affecting my ability to concentrate and process information. It’s difficult to describe.
They only work for reading. When I look into the distance everything is way worse than without them, and evidently when I’m thinking about things as I write, I occasionally look away from the screen for a moment, except because everything is totally blurry when I do that now, I loose my train of thought. In busy environments it’s this bizarre combination of perfect visibility followed immediately by total distraction. I suppose I’ll get used to them.
I was able to add special newsletter pages to the website, and in doing so I discovered that last week’s issue was #96. That’s wild, way more than I thought. It’s also the year I graduated from school, so a bit of bizarre numerology there. It was relatively easy to add because the static site generator now has most of the components needed to create a latest section, a set of pages, a new data source, archives, tagclouds and feeds. Mostly by just copying a few markdown files, and but also a slight component customisation. Kind of cool, it works!
https://markjgsmith.com/latest
The big story / narrative for me this week is the realisation by some that things online are going to be changing much more significantly that previously thought because of all the AI progress being made. Changes that affect the very foundations of how we design and build for the web, and also the fundamental economics that we’ve been used to for the past 20 years.
It’s very unclear how this is going to play-out, there’s no obvious way to shift from a world where the paradigm is to search for websites with the content you want and get sent there so you can get it yourself, to a world where you just ask an AI a question and it figures everything out for you and gives you an exact answer.
What seems to be happening right now is that AI companies are just going ahead with their technologies without a care for the web underneath that powers it. The people who build and maintain the web are just expected to somehow survive AND support the new super amazing AI magic wonderland, EVEN THOUGH the AI magic wonderland totally destroys the advertising dollars that make the web possible in the first place.
It wouldn’t surprise me if at some point in the future the AI industrial complex tries to claim that they were actually around before the web and it’s the web that is destroying them. At that point they might as well capture everyone on the web, sticking us all in matrix style human battery pods. At least that’s the sort of thing that could happen if we don’t find a way to navigate this peacefully.
In a somewhat related topic, I wrote a blog post about the sad state of digital media companies, that once held so much promise, with some old school podcasts and vlogs mentioned, maybe / hopefully some of you will like it:
Digital media companies are going out of business - There have been a lot of folks saying recently that the best years for digital media companies have now passed us by, and many of the organisations that were praised for reshaping media and news online are going out of business. This is a bit of a roundup of that narrative with a few personal notes added. https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2023/05/19/digital-media-companies-are-going-out-of-business
This week is another podcast week, a handful of great episodes:
Google I/O recap: AI is taking over Search (Vergecast Podcast) - Google lays out it’s AI strategy, and it looks like the web as we know it is going to be deprecated, the whole darn thing, Nilay is on it, asking the difficult questions others aren’t, while also enthusiastically climbing into the AI life boats on offer, nice if you’re able to I guess https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vdmVyZ2VjYXN0/episode/NzViNzEwZDYtMzUwZS0xMWVkLWFjNmUtYWIyYWVkYWI4Njcw?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahcKEwjwhYWYzYL_AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQNQ
How companies are sponsoring OSS Ep#539 (Changelog Interviews Podcast) - Great discussion about this important topic, some practical solutions suggested, even more important now that the web probably going to be deprecated https://changelog.com/podcast/539
10 Rules for Life With Michael Saylor (What Bitcoin Did Podcast) - Some great life tips, mind bending future-of -ai discussion, and another awesome discussion about why bitcoin miners are so important, the bigger picture is that they play a crucial role that keeps the entire network protected in both physical and virtual space, much more than just number crunching https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/10-rules-for-life-with-michael-saylor
What the World Can Learn from China’s Innovation Playbook (TED Talk Daily Podcast) - Their approach involves political centralisation with economic decentralisation, creating hundreds of cottage industries, ecosystem focussed, local government backed https://www.ted.com/talks/keyu_jin_what_the_world_can_learn_from_china_s_innovation_playbook/c
I’ll leave you with a link to an letter by the Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools regarding their approach to handling the AI crisis / opportunity, as it’s a sign of the times:
ChatGPT caught NYC schools off guard. Now, we’re determined to embrace its potential. https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2023/5/18/23727942/chatgpt-nyc-schools-david-banks
Personally I just want to build some websites, that’s all I’ve really wanted to do for the past 20 years. Are you going to finally allow it world?
That’s all from me…
Best reguards,
Mark
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Have a great weekend and a fantastic next week!