Will websites still exist in 10 years?
With the incredible speed at which artificial intelligence (AI) is developing, I have my doubts. Most if not all search engines offer automatically generated snippets to your search query right at the top of the page. Meaning that you don't have to go to the original website.
Content will still be generated by people and organizations for inclusion on the Internet, but the specific actual information may not be in the forefront of the user experience.
Think about it this way, it's analogous to a librarian. You go to your favourite search engine and asking a question. Rather than it providing discrete books (think websites) and their location in the library, the AI would do all the research and provide you with a well-documented answer. Therefore there would be no need for a fancy website because only the, data the information is important.
Websites might be viewed as historical items, analogous to looking at through a history book. They would be considered part of the history of the Internet. In much the same way we now view early websites from the 80s, with simple layouts and loaded with animated GIFs.
There are a number of new technologies coming online that could greatly enhance what semiconductors (integrated circuits) and hence AIs are capable of:
- Instead of copper traces within the circuits, light transmission as a method of sending information (video by Anastasiia Nosova ) is being worked on. This means less heat and faster computation. Which ultimately of course results in better artificial intelligence.
- The classical way of computing that we all know and love may be on its way out. Not just because of quantum computing but due to the potential of hybrid approaches, borrowing lessons from a wide variety of fields, the idea of classical ones and zeros may indeed come to an end.
The Internet will change with all these developments. As a matter of fact the Internet as we know it may ultimately fade into the background, in much the same way as landline based telephones have. We all know about them but everyone uses cell phones. I haven't had a landline phone in years. The only vestige of that in my apartment is the "phone" which is used only to open the front door. It came with the building and doesn't cost me any money. Even though it has a phone number officially associated with it I would have to look it up.
Where we're headed for is a service which we will just ask a question to. It will do all the research and present us with the answer. Of course we can research if we want to but it is unlikely many will do that. Remember when everyone had to remember phone numbers?… Now no one does. Simply because they don't have to. You look up your friend's name in your phone and tap.
Who knows, the world-famous "Internet Archive" may turn into a museum of the past. If you've never used this resource, you should check it out. They continually scan the Internet and archive snapshots of websites as they currently are. The Internet archive calls this archiving service their Wayback Machine Even my very first website is in their collection.
Just a thought I had today so I thought I'd write this quick post. What do you think let me know.
Patrick
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