The Internet Archive faces an existential threat from the AI boom
By
Anthony Cuthbertson
Summary
The article discusses how the web is disappearing almost as soon as it began, highlighting the challenges of preserving digital history. It notes that the first ever website from 1991 has no known exact replica, and preservation efforts only began five years later with Brewster Kahle's Internet Archive. The piece warns that the Internet Archive, a vital resource for truth-seeking in global events, is now threatened by the artificial intelligence boom, becoming collateral damage as AI companies scrape and exploit digital archives.
Source
Key quotes
· 3 pulledThe first ever website, which went live in August 1991, provided information on the world wide web project launched by Tim Berners-Lee. But no one really knows what this page actually looked like.
It wasn't until five years after the web was founded that efforts began to preserve its history, when computer engineer Brewster Kahle set up the Internet Archive.
The Internet Archive is a vital resource that has helped the search for truth in more than one global event, but it is in danger of becoming the latest collateral damage of the artificial intelligence boom
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