AI leaves web in the lurch

The Artificial Intelligence-fixated tech industry is rapidly dismantling the old web, with no game plan for how to replace it. Chatbots have already begun to intercept web traffic and drain publishers' revenue. Now tech giants and startups aim to remodel the devices and browsers we use to access web pages, using AI to summarize or pre-empt the content that people and publishers post online. As tech goes all in on rebuilding our web experiences with AI, there's no guarantee that the web will still be there when that job is done. With chatbots becoming users' default way to find out what's happening in the world, their makers pretend they can plaster this new interface layer over the internet without disrupting the data sources that feed it. But some media observers believe an AI-first web will choke off the money and attention that motivates web creators to keep extending the common knowledge pool.