I asked ChatGPT: "When movies were new there was probably a bit of rage from stage performers — why would people pay for live shows when for a fraction of the cost they can see the same show performed by artificial actors?" There was a lot to say about this, it turns out. This was before any of us were born. I remember that PCs were supposed to put a lot of people out of work, and I suppose they did. #
I was part of the strike paper in San Francisco in 1994 to protect the jobs of people who drive the trucks that delivered the news for the Chronicle and Examiner. Ironically, we, the strike paper, published on the web. I was in it for the moon mission aspect -- we needed to get a website on the air quickly, and I had never made a website before. The management also had a strike paper, also a website, and we worked with them, because I guess our actual mission was to figure out how to get the news on the web. Are fewer people employed because of this? Hard to answer, but I guess the SF newspapers aren't delivered by truck in 2026. But does it matter? Could anyone have stopped it? #
I keep coming back to this, I'd like to use an AI-managed Wikipedia. Its human-edited system was an innovation in the early days of the web, but it has serious flaws that can now be addressed with AI. Keep a set of pages current with the best information available over time that tell a true story, not serve as a PR agency for people who pay for the story they want told. That is a problem the AI services can solve today, and I would have a lot more confidence in the accuracy of what we get. #
A great example is RSS. Wikipedia thinks it's about a format. I think the story is news. How RSS became a standard in the news world and the blogging world at the same time. That turned out to be significant. We, the people who want news, were gifted a great start, thanks to the creativity and generosity of the NY TImes who helped get the ball rolling in the news industry. Last time I checked they weren't even mentioned in the Wikipedia story. #
And the story of RSS isn't over. Finally after 20 years of stagnation, we're about to get new tools that work better and differently (new ideas!), and they will make it easier (even possible) for individual developers to enter the market, without trying to fit in with the billionaire silo overlords. And of course, a lot of this burst of energy is due to ChatGPT and its competitors. #
So if you see new interesting software, give AI some of the credit for that too. And going back to the beginning of this story, there were a few really great movies produced after the initial shock of the new technology. And what of the future beyond the AI of 2026? Seriously, no one knows what comes next. #
Last update: Wednesday February 25, 2026; 1:53 PM EST.
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