One signal

Two new books take different routes through the internet’s history: Mark Little looks at how it became dominated by powerful companies, while UCLA scholar Christopher Kelty asks what other internet might have emerged from its early foundations. An Irish Times review says both see promise in the internet’s original openness, and both turn to AI as part of the next big question.

Little draws on his experience in journalism and technology companies to examine platforms, surveillance and the forces that keep people scrolling. Kelty takes a more academic, sometimes playful approach, questioning familiar accounts of how the internet changed. Neither book offers a magic route back to a better past. Their useful challenge is what lessons the internet’s history offers as AI reshapes what comes next.

Discuss: Which matters more for building a better AI future: changing the technology, or changing who controls it?

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