The challenge is to turn our online attention economy, in which giant corporations battle to capture and monetise our time, into an intention economy that serves the individual’s needs and preserves their privacy. “Fortunately — and I’m very optimistic about this — the paradigm shift of AI offers us a unique opportunity to hit the reset button,” he writes.
Yet if the intention economy is to thrive it must enable individuals to control their own data. Berners-Lee favours the Fediverse, a nascent network of interconnected digital services and social media, including Bluesky, Mastodon and Matrix, that relies on open protocols. One such protocol is Solid, being commercialised by Berners-Lee’s company Inrupt, which enables users to control their own agentic data pods, or wallets, and grant access to trusted services.
Other developers, universities and organisations are also devising ways to reimagine the web’s infrastructure in the AI age. One of the best-funded is Project Liberty, a $500mn initiative backed by the American businessman Frank McCourt. This has helped develop the interoperable decentralised social networking protocol (DSNP) that enables users to delegate and revoke access to their data for every application. Project Liberty is now working with more than 170 partner organisations, with the protocol being used by about 14mn people, according to McCourt. “Agency should be returned to individuals,” he tells me.
Hailing from a five-generation construction company family, McCourt is convinced that fixing underlying infrastructure is often the most effective means of tackling surface problems. The best way to solve lead poisoning in water, for example, is by replacing dangerous pipes, not the sink and tap. Systemic change happens from the bottom up, rather than the top down.
As he sees it, the technology is evolving from an app-centric web to an AI-enabled agentic web and that creates white space for change. While it is hard to disrupt 30 years of entrenched technology, it is easier to design new plumbing from scratch. Berners-Lee envisages the creation of a safe, secure and personalised AI agent that will work solely in the user’s interests. Inrupt is in the process of developing Charlie, as he calls it.
To read the full article, visit the Financial Times website here.