As AI Overwhelms the Web: What Was the Internet?

In a special feature for Boston Review, five writers reflect on the transformation of the internet from an open, decentralized space to a corporatized, AI-driven landscape. Siva Vaidhyanathan argues that Google's early digitization projects, such as Google Books, were groundwork for generative AI, and that the shift from ranking links to synthesizing answers in AI Overviews is destroying the open web's economic base. Avery Dame-Griff recalls the small-scale, community-oriented early internet and critiques the 'frictionless' design of modern platforms, which he argues enables manipulation and harms marginalized groups. Joanna Walsh discusses the decline of independent literary magazines and the loss of opportunities for emerging writers, emphasizing the importance of the web for creative participation. Chad Wellmon traces the history of search from bibliometrics to AI, arguing that Google's pivot to 'intelligent' search represents a broader crisis of epistemic authority. Cory Doctorow blames policymakers for enabling monopolies and the 'enshittocene,' where technology degrades due to regulatory capture. The feature includes contributions from Vaidhyanathan, Dame-Griff, Walsh, Wellmon, and Doctorow, and references to Tim Berners-Lee, Google, Meta, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.