Wake-up call from Tim Berners-Lee

Tim Berners-Lee writes in a new article in the Guardian that “Somewhere between my original vision of web 1.0 and the rise of social media as part of web 2.0, we went down the wrong path.”

Today, I look at my invention and I am forced to ask: is the web still free today? No, not all of it. We see a handful of large platforms collecting users’ personal data to share with commercial brokers or even oppressive governments. We see ubiquitous algorithms that are addictive by design and harmful to the mental health of our teenagers. Sharing personal data for use certainly does not fit with my vision of a free web. On many platforms, we are no longer the customers, but instead have become the product. Our data, even if it is anonymous, is sold to entities we never intended it to reach, who can then target us with content and advertising…

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We have the technical ability to give that power back to the individual. Solid is an open source interoperability standard that my team and I developed at MIT over a decade ago.

• Tim Berners-Lee started a project to protect personal data

Apps running on Solid don’t silently collect your data – they have to ask you for it, and you choose whether to agree or not. Instead of it sitting in countless separate places on the internet in the hands of whoever it’s been resold to, your data is in one place, controlled by you.

Why does your smartwatch write your biological data to a silo in one format? Why does your credit card write your financial data to a second silo in a different format? Why do your YouTube comments, Reddit posts, Facebook updates, and tweets all get stored in different places?

Why is the default expectation that you shouldn't be able to see any of this stuff? You produce all of this data – with your actions, your choices, your body, your preferences, your decisions, and You should have it. You should have the power…

We are now at a new crossroads, a crossroads where we must decide whether Artificial Intelligence will be used for the betterment or at the expense of our society.

How can we learn from the mistakes of the past? First of all, we need to ensure that policymakers don't end up playing the same decade-old cover-up game they did on social media.

It is time to decide that the governance model for Artificial Intelligence is yesterday, so we must act urgently.

In 2017, I wrote a thought experiment about an AI that works for you. I called it Charlie. Charlie works for you like your doctor or your lawyer, bound by laws, regulations, and codes of ethics.

Why can't the same framework be adopted for Artificial Intelligence? We have learned from social media that power belongs to the monopolies that control and collect personal data. We cannot let the same happen with Artificial Intelligence.

Berners -Lee also states that “we need a Cern-type non-profit organization that will promote international research on Artificial Intelligence,” arguing that if we mobilize the political will, “we have the opportunity to restore the web as a tool for collaboration, for creativity across cultural borders.”

"We can empower people again and take back the web. It's not too late."

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Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.