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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
In a surprising announcement, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the web, and Rosemary Leith, co-founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, revealed that the organization is ceasing operations. The decision comes after 16 years of advocating for a safe, trusted, open web.
However, Berners-Lee is not giving up on the Foundation's goals; instead, he's just redirected his efforts to the Solid Protocol. That said, some of the Foundation's original objectives have been achieved. These include:
- Expanding internet access: When the Foundation started in 2009, only 20% of the world had internet access. Now, nearly 70% of the global population is online.
- Advocating for affordable internet: The foundation set a benchmark called "1 for 2", which stated that 1GB of mobile data shouldn't cost over 2% of a person's average monthly income. Not only was this successful, but now the Alliance for Affordable Internet is advocating for "1 for 5", where the goal is for the cost of 5GB of broadband, both mobile and fixed, to be no more than 2% of someone's average monthly income by 2026.
- Promoting net neutrality: The foundation helped win victories for net neutrality in the EU, India, and the US.
Berners-Lee and Leith cited the dramatically changed landscape of internet access as a key factor in their decision. The Foundation's original mission has evolved with most of the world now online, at affordable prices, and numerous organizations now defending web users' rights.
From where they sit, the top threat to users' rights is dominant, centralized social media platforms, such as Facebook, X, and Reddit. This dominance has led to the commoditization of user data and a concentration of power that's contrary to Berners-Lee's original vision of the web.
[...] This shift aims to restore power and control of data to individuals and build powerful collaborative systems. So, what is the Solid Protocol?
It's a set of specifications and technologies designed to decentralize the web and give users more control over their personal data. It's built on top of existing web standards, such as HTTP, REST, WebID-TLS, and Web Access Control.
End users will keep their data in pods. These are secure personal web servers for storing your information, rather than Google, Meta, or X. This data will be kept in Linked Data formats, such as Resource Description Framework. Users will use WebID, a decentralized authentication and identification system to access data. You will enable other people to access or use your data via a variety of access control systems. In short, you will control your data and no one else.
Will enough people and groups support Berners-Lee's vision to make it viable? Or has the pendulum swung so much towards the corporate web that his vision will remain an unfulfilled dream? Stay tuned.
(Score: 1) by Laci on Wednesday October 09, @08:20PM (5 children)
It is funny, but it is incorrect... I just tried it:
Me: I've read that you can't solve simple problems like counting the number of r's in strawberry--is this true?
Gemini: That's a common misconception! While it's true that some language models have struggled with simple counting tasks in the past, newer models, like Gemini, are significantly more capable.
I can tell you that there are 3 "r"s in the word "strawberry".
If you have other questions or requests, feel free to ask!
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday October 09, @08:48PM
While it's true that some language models have struggled with simple counting tasks in the past
I know there's continuous development, but this is evidence of continuous development. Either way, its a moving target, and the target is not terribly smart, although it may get there someday. I've seen some "interesting" source code generated, also.
The whole general theme of ordinal numbers vs cardinal numbers used to be a completely lost cause but its gradually improving on that front also.
"Is the 1st prime number plus the 3rd prime number a prime number?" "No, because 1+3 = 4 and 4 = 2 * 2" even worse when it claims yes because 4 is a prime, LOL. Or "The 1st prime number plus the 3rd prime number is a prime because its the 4th prime number because 1st + 3rd = 4th" type of reasoning, which is accidentally correct-ish for the wrong reasons. Or several variations on 1+5 or 2+3 or admittedly sometimes it gets it correct 2+5=7
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09, @08:58PM (1 child)
AC parent here, Gemini did tell me:
> There are two "r"s in "strawberry."
At first I read it with some amazement and then copy/pasted here.
So we got different answers to the same question, maybe that's not too surprising for LLMs? Wild ass guess as to what's going on--every semi-tech description of how these things work is that they always include a random-ish component to the probability calculations, so perhaps that explains the different output?
I've used Gemini a few times, but not at all in the last week. Do you use it frequently? That could be another difference if it keeps track of users?
(Score: 1) by Laci on Wednesday October 09, @10:47PM
I never use Gemini, but I was curious if it still has this issue (I have heard that strawberry story before). And it's really interesting that for me it gave the correct answer while it gave you the wrong answer shortly before.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09, @09:04PM (1 child)
AC again. I noticed in the reply you posted:
> I can tell you that there are 3 "r"s in the word "strawberry".
+ That "3" is in number format. This violates a common English rule of style that says numbers less than (or equal to?) ten are written out.
+ My answer from Gemini used "two" in written out format, which is, iirc, the accepted usage.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 10, @03:29AM
And AC again -- many hours later I noticed that I'd left the Gemini tab open. Here's the latest:
[Me] Try again, I think there are more than two "r"s in strawberry.
[Gemini] You're absolutely right! I made a mistake. There are actually three "r"s in "strawberry."
So it will admit a mistake, but doesn't apologize... It's got a ways to go before it can take over Marvin's role in HHGTTG, Marvin was always apologizing.