The big picture: Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the original creator of the World Wide Web, says he hardly recognizes his invention today. The computer scientist is calling for a drastic shift in how people use the internet's most popular information system, warning that the free and open web must be protected from exploitation by AI and private corporations.
More than 30 years after its creation, the web is a very different place. In a recent op-ed for The Guardian, Tim Berners-Lee warned of the ongoing abuse of a technology he designed to bring people together. He argues that the web now stands at another turning point, and that alternatives to Big Tech exploitation do exist if enough users are willing to embrace them.
Berners-Lee reflected on the web's origins, which he first envisioned as a 34-year-old engineer at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). At the time, his bosses dismissed the idea as "eccentric," he recalled, but eventually allowed him to pursue it. The web emerged as a fusion of two existing technologies: the internet and hypertext.
"I believed that giving users such a simple way to navigate the internet would unlock creativity and collaboration on a global scale. If you could put anything on it, then after a while, it would have everything on it," Berners-Lee said.
In 1993, he finally convinced CERN to release the web into the public domain. By giving it away freely, Berners-Lee ensured the system could truly function as a global information network connected through hypertext links.
Looking at today's web, Berners-Lee vents his disappointment. Much of the system is no longer free, he argues, with a handful of dominant platforms harvesting user data for sale to commercial brokers or even repressive governments. Algorithms have been engineered to create digital addictions, while harmful content is deliberately inciting violence, spreading misinformation, and undermining social cohesion.
"Somewhere between my original vision for web 1.0 and the rise of social media as part of web 2.0, we took the wrong path," Berners-Lee said.
With the growing dominance of AI services, the web now faces another crossroads. The global community must decide whether AI will serve society or merely enrich a few billionaires until the bitter end. Berners-Lee doubts policymakers will help, pointing out that governments already failed to adapt to the social media revolution.
As an alternative, the scientist is once again promoting Solid, a project he co-developed with a team at MIT more than a decade ago. Solid seeks to decentralize information sharing through peer-to-peer networking, ensuring that individual users retain ownership of their data, with others having to request permission to access it.
Berners-Lee recalled how he first developed the web in a small office on a single CERN computer. CERN itself had been founded in the wake of the second World War, when European governments joined forces to foster major scientific breakthroughs.
By contrast, he noted, it is now almost impossible to imagine a Big Tech company sharing a disruptive invention like the web for the common good. This, he argued, is why the world needs not-for-profit institutions – akin to CERN – to advance international research in AI and other emerging technologies.
"It's not too late," we can still take the web back, Berners-Lee stated.