Connect with us

Published

on

Tim Berners-Lee is credited with inventing the World Wide Web in 1989. But he has been dissatisfied with the way his original vision for the web has panned out.

Rita Franca | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Personal artificial intelligence assistants that know our health status and legal history inside out. The ability to transfer your data from one place to another seamlessly without any roadblocks.  

These are just some of the predictions for the future of the web from the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, on the 35th anniversary of its invention.

Berners-Lee is credited with inventing the world-changing technology in 1989 while working at CERN, the Swiss particle physics research center. 

The London-born computer scientist submitted a proposal for an information management system to help his colleagues share information among themselves. 

When it started, I couldn’t have predicted that it was going to be like this, this change.

Tim Berners-Lee

Inventor, World Wide Web

Berners-Lee got to continue working on his idea for this information sharing system, and by 1991, the World Wide Web was up and running.

When Tim Berners-Lee started work on the World Wide Web 35 years ago, he had no idea it was about to become the ubiquitous force it is today. “I couldn’t have predicted that it was going to be like this, this change,” he told CNBC.

Fabrice Coffrini | AFP via Getty Images

In 1993, Berners-Lee convinced CERN to release the Web protocol and source code into the public domain without any patents or fees. Berners-Lee has attributed the runaway success of the web to this decision.

Berners-Lee remembers what things were like when the web got started 35 years ago. “When it started, I couldn’t have predicted that it was going to be like this, this change,” he told CNBC.

He could tell there were signs the web was going to grow in a big way early on, though. Traffic to the very first website, info.cern.ch, “was going up by a factor of 10 every year, so doubling every four months.” 

“We lost track of the logs because they cut off,” Berners-Lee recalls. “Now this is going to be a serious thing. We need to make sure it doesn’t collapse.”

In the decades that have passed since the web’s creation, Berners-Lee sees some of the downsides that have come about. For one, social media feeds tailored by AI algorithms have meant people “feeling angry and upset, or hateful,” he says.

Meanwhile, the ease of producing content on social media platforms and spinning up new websites and blogs has led to a “disempowerment” for people and businesses — and a loss of ownership over our data, he adds.

But Berners-Lee still has some optimism for the future. Here are some of his top predictions for what the web will look like in the next 35 years.

Prediction 1: Everyone will have a personal AI assistant 

One of Berners-Lee’s big predictions is that AI will transform the way we interact with the web.  

With the arrival of generative AI tools like Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT, tech firms are betting consumers will become much more engaged with digital chatbots to get information they need and help them produce written materials and even code. 

There are already firms trying to reimagine what our interaction with the web will look like using AI-powered devices, including Samsung with its Galaxy S24 smartphone, and U.S. startup Humane AI with its wearable Pin device. 

You will have an AI assistant that works for you, like a doctor.

Tim Berners-Lee

Inventor, World Wide Web

Berners-Lee thinks that one day we’ll have AI assistants that work for us — similar to our doctors, lawyers, and bankers.

“Some people worry about whether, in 35 years, AI will be more powerful than us,” Berners-Lee told CNBC via a Zoom video call last week. 

“One of the things I predict — but it’s something we may have to fight for — is you will have an AI assistant, which you can trust, and it works for you, like a doctor,” Berners-Lee said.  

Robert Blumofe, global chief technology officer of Akamai, said he thinks the web will cease being something that humans use — and that AI agents will take the reins on our behalf. 

“You can imagine a world years from now where the web is a realm of AI agents and humans no longer effectively use the web,” Blumofe told CNBC in an interview last week. 

“It would all be done through AI agents; you would never go directly to your bank account online, or your health provider online, or any e-commerce sites.”

Akamai was founded in response to a challenge Berners-Lee posed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in early 1995 to create a new way of delivering web content to end users faster.

Three decades after inventing the web, Tim Berners-Lee has some ideas on how to fix it

Blumofe still thinks we’ll go online for entertainment TV shows, movies, and video games. But he thinks a lot of the daily functions of our online lives will in future be managed by AI. 

“Human beings can go back to our lives in the physical world greeting each other face to face as a physical experience, rather than a virtual experience,” he said. 

Prediction 2: We’ll take true ownership of our data across all platforms — including VR 

Another thing Berners-Lee is forecasting is a web in which we’ll all have full control of our data. 

So, rather than handing away ownership of our data to Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and other tech giants, we’ll instead be able to own our data through a data store, or “pod.” 

“You’ll think of your data pod as your digital space, you’ll think of it as being one thing you’re very comfortable with,” Berners-Lee explains. 

Pods are a technology Berners-Lee is working on with his startup Inrupt.  

Tim Berners-Lee is forecasting is a web in which we’ll all have full control of our data. So, rather than handing away ownership of our data to Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and other tech giants, we’ll instead be able to own our data through a data store, or “pod.”

Sebastian Derungs | Afp via Getty Images

Inrupt is behind something called the Solid protocol, which “aims to radically change the way Web applications work today, resulting in true data ownership as well as improved privacy.”

In 2022, the firm raised $30 million from venture capital firms including Forte Ventures, Akamai, and Glasswing Ventures. 

You can go do things with a VR headset, and then when you take the VR headset off, you could do it with a huge screen. And whenever you move, you can grab your phone and the experience will be as one. It should very smoothly go between different devices. 

Tim Berners-Lee

Inventor, World Wide Web

In Berners-Lee’s vision for a future web, you’ll be able to use your digital pod to access all your essential applications for instance, email across your phone, but also your laptop, desktop computer, and bigger screens like TVs.

Berners-Lee added that his idea is for us to have a set of “trust apps” that we can allow to communicate with each other to share information and do important tasks much faster.  

Take, for example, buying flights. Berners-Lee predicts that the future experience for the web will be one where you can use your wallet to purchase flights off a flight aggregator, and then give it access to data you entrust it with to come up with plans for what to do at your destination. 

“All of your to do lists, calendar events and so on, and all the different parts of your data, will come together, so the ability to live your life becomes much more powerful.” 

Chintan Patel, chief technology officer for software firm Cisco in the U.K., said he thinks the web is ultimately moving to place that’s open and where information can be shared more easily.

WSJ's Joanna Stern on Apple Vision Pro one month later: I'm reaching for it far less

“Even though we have seen increasingly the web becoming a little fragmented with more siloed platforms — more information is collected, sold, even misused in many cases,” Patel said.

However, he noted that OpenAI’s ChatGPT — and several other popular generative AI tools — are powered by data sourced from the open web.

“For all its faults, the web has brought way more benefits to society and made many more things possible,” Patel said.  

Berners-Lee predicts his vision for the web will also go a step further with virtual and mixed reality, where the physical and digital world both interact through powerful headsets, according to Berners-Lee. 

“You can go do things with a VR headset, and then when you take the VR headset off, you could do it with a huge screen,” he said. “And whenever you move, you can grab your phone and the experience will be as one. It should very smoothly go between different devices.”

Mixed reality is a new dimension for accessing the web experts expect we’ll get more used to over time.

“There’s going to be some great shifts happening in terms of some serious digital connectivity,” Patel told CNBC in an interview. 

“It will be called by then some form of spatial computing and spatial environment which won’t be something we are looking for, but an immersive experience delivered to us.” 

Prediction 3: A Big Tech company could get broken up 

Another thing Berners-Lee says might happen in the future is a big tech company being forced to break up. 

Last week, the European Union’s landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA), which forces tech giants to change their platforms to allow for competitor products to flourish, officially came into force, in a major step that advocates hope will lead to a healthier tech competition landscape. 

If a tech firm breaches its obligations under the DMA, the European Commission can enforce some meaty legal measures. That includes fines worth up to 10% of a company’s global annual revenues, or 20% for repeat offenders. 

Things are changing so quickly. AI is changing very, very quickly. There are monopolies in AI. Monopolies changed pretty quickly back in the web.

Tim Berners-Lee

Inventor, World Wide Web

In some extreme cases, the Commission can demand the breakup of companies — although most antitrust lawyers think such an outcome is unlikely, given the legal hurdles Brussels may face. 

Berners-Lee said he always prefers it when tech companies “do the right thing by themselves” before regulators step in. “That’s always been the spirit of the internet.” 

He uses the example of the Data Transfer Initiative, a private initiative that launched in 2018 and is now backed by the likes of Google, Apple, and Meta, to encourage portability of photos, videos and other data between their platforms. 

“Maybe the companies were prompted a bit by the possibility of regulation,” Berners-Lee said. “But this was an independent thing.” 

However, he added: “Things are changing so quickly. AI is changing very, very quickly. There are monopolies in AI. Monopolies changed pretty quickly back in the web.” 

“Maybe at some point in the future, agencies will have to work to break up big companies, but we don’t know which company that will be,” Berners-Lee said. 

Continue Reading

Technology

Tesla shares retreat following sharpest rally since 2013

Published

on

By

Tesla shares retreat following sharpest rally since 2013

Tesla CEO Elon Musk wears a ‘Trump Was Right About Everything!’ hat while attending a cabinet meeting at the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 24, 2025. 

Carlos Barria | Reuters

Tesla shares slumped on Thursday, reversing course a day after the electric vehicle maker had its biggest gain on the market since 2013.

The stock dropped 7.3% to close at $252.40 and is now down 38% for the year, by far the biggest decline among tech’s megacap companies. That’s true even after the shares soared 23% on Wednesday, their second-sharpest rally on record.

President Donald Trump sent stocks up on Wednesday after announcing he would pause steep tariffs for many U.S. trading partners for 90 days to allow for negotiations. He set a minimum tariff rate of 10% while negotiations take place, but increased the tariff on China.

The whole market has whipsawed on President Trump’s changing plans, but Tesla has been particularly volatile, rising or falling by at least 5% on 19 different occasions this year.

The slump on Thursday came after the White House clarified that China’s tariff rate now stood at 145%. Beijing announced a reciprocal 84% tariff rate on U.S. goods, effective April 10. And the EU said it approved reciprocal tariffs on U.S. imports.

As questions swirled about the type of deals the U.S. might strike, analysts at UBS, Goldman Sachs and Mizuho cut their price targets on Tesla, with all three citing margin impacts of Trump’s auto tariffs.

“We expect Tesla shares to be volatile but downward sloping considering the rich valuation (especially compared to the other Mag7 stocks) in a skittish market,” UBS wrote. The firm, which has a sell rating and price target of $190, said it also sees “demand concerns.”

Tesla has experienced brand deterioration, declining deliveries and has been hit with protests along with some criminal acts targeting its facilities and vehicles. CEO Elon Musk, one of President Trump’s top advisers, has drawn heat to Tesla for his work in the White House, where he has slashed government spending and the federal workforce. In Europe, he has faced opposition after endorsing Germany’s far-right AfD party.

Tesla sales declined across Europe in the first quarter, according to data from European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) and others.

The uncertainty and threat of new tariffs has been troubling for Tesla’s margin outlook. The company sources many parts and materials from suppliers in China, Mexico and elsewhere.

Sales growth for Tesla previously hinged on the company’s ability to manufacture and sell a high volume of its cars and battery energy storage systems throughout Europe and Asia. EV competition has ramped up on both continents recently, and now the company has to contend with highest costs imposed by levies.

Musk has taken his anger out on Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navarro, calling him a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks” in social media posts earlier this week. However, Musk has shown his approval of the administration’s hard line against China, sharing a clip on X of U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussing the matter.

“China’s business model is predicated on this incredible imbalanced economy, and exporting low-cost goods – and subsidized goods – to the rest of the world,” Bessent said in the clip.

Thursday’s selloff provided some relief to Tesla short sellers, who got hammered in the prior day’s rally. According to S3 Partners, Tesla short interest stood around 80.5 million shares, with a 2.8% float as of Thursday. It’s one of the top four equity shorts in terms of notional value, at $17.9 billion. Short sellers bet on the decline in a stock and lose money when it goes up.

WATCH: Tesla faces opportunities and challenges

Tesla faces both opportunities and competition as it enters the Saudi market: S&P Global Mobility

Continue Reading

Technology

Trump tariffs mean higher prices, big losses for Amazon sellers that source from China

Published

on

By

Trump tariffs mean higher prices, big losses for Amazon sellers that source from China

President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff policy on April 2 didn’t just cause mayhem in the stock market. It sent Amazon sellers into a panic.

Many sellers on Amazon count on China for manufacturing and assembly due to lower costs and established infrastructure – up to 70% of goods on Amazon come from China, according to Wedbush Securities. With nearly all imports from China being taxed a staggering 145% under the latest tariffs, Amazon sellers are having to decide whether to raise prices or absorb the vastly increased cost of importing their goods.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on Thursday told CNBC that its vast network of third-party sellers will likely “pass the cost on” to consumers. He added that Amazon has done some “strategic forward inventory buys” and looked to renegotiate terms on some purchase orders to keep prices low.

Although Trump temporarily lowered tariffs on most countries to 10% on Wednesday, he doubled down on the huge tariffs on goods from China. Before the pause, average tariff rates under Trump were at the highest level since the Great Depression. The “reciprocal tariffs” were far steeper in regions like Southeast Asia. Tariffs also hit U.S. allies at unusual rates, including 20% on the European Union and previously announced 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

Josianne Boisvert of Canadian-based Portable Winch Co. said she “was in a state of shock” when the tariffs were announced. For 20 years, the company has driven its products an hour to the U.S. border for duty-free shipping to American customers. 

“We are questioning ourselves if we just move our focus to Europe,” Boisvert said.

CNBC talked to several Amazon sellers to find out how the new tariffs are having an impact on their decisions about prices and where to manufacture.

Price hikes

In a small warehouse in San Rafael, California, Dusty Kenney showed CNBC hundreds of boxes filled with her PrimaStella brand baby spoons, bento boxes and other kids products. Most of them arrived by sea from China before tariffs went into effect. Paying the added tariffs could put her out of business if they continue, she said.

“I will hold my prices for as long as I can and just absorb those tariffs because I’m already competing against those Chinese sellers that are undercutting me,” Kenney said. Although tariffs will also impact her Chinese-based competitors, the cost of doing business in the U.S. is far higher than in China.

“The administration would like people to think that this is a China problem, and that this is only hurting Chinese-based businesses and helping U.S.-based businesses. But I am a U.S.-based business, let’s be clear,” Kenney said. “Everything’s warehoused here, designed here, photographed here. All the income that comes from that stays here.” 

Several sellers said they are considering raising prices if Trump’s tariffs stick around.

The vast majority of products on Amazon are sold by third-parties, but tariffs will also impact the company’s first-party brands.

That includes Amazon Basics-branded batteries, which compete against the likes of Duracell and Energizer by retailing at lower prices, said Jason Goldberg of the Publicis Groupe. 

If Amazon has to raise the price of its own batteries, he said, “consumers are likely to have a preference for that well-known, familiar brand.” 

The Seattle-based tech company is likely to wait at least six months before passing the tariff costs on to consumers, said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities. 

“The last thing they want to do is right away just pass it to the consumer, because you don’t know how transitory this is,” said Ives, adding that Amazon likely got “well ahead of this” by diversifying its supply chain outside of China.

That’s a strategy many Amazon sellers are also trying.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reviving U.S. manufacturing?

Workers making Care Bears at a factory in Ankang, China.

CNBC

A lot of toy manufacturing moved to Vietnam, Mexico and India in the last five years because of China tariffs during Trump’s first term, Foreman said. But many of the toy factories there are also owned by Chinese companies, he said. 

“So you’re sort of not escaping doing business with the Chinese,” Foreman said. 

Other product categories, like teas, can’t easily be grown in the U.S. because of the climate.

“You need high humidity. Usually you need to be at a very high altitude. And those things only come together in certain parts of the world, ” said James Fayal, who runs high-energy tea brand Zest. With its green tea grown in coastal China and black tea in India, Fayal said he’ll have to pass the cost on to consumers because he doesn’t have a U.S. option.

For the brands that do manufacture in the U.S., the tariffs are creating a competitive advantage, those companies said. 

“Put our products side by side to a competitor’s that is getting it overseas and it’s a night and day difference,” said Dayne Rusch of Vyper Industrial

Vyper’s American-made stools and other shop equipment range in price from $350 to $650 while foreign-made alternatives can sell for less than $40, Rusch said.

At the National Hardware Show in March, Rusch said he was approached by many vendors asking if Vyper would consider manufacturing their products.

“There’s a huge opportunity for OEM manufacturers to start taking on more work from these people that were purchasing overseas and start making it here in the United States,” Rusch said.

The other sells that spoke to CNBC said it’s not financially feasible to relocate manufacturing to the U.S., even though it would allow them to avoid tariffs. 

Some, like William Su, are moving manufacturing completely out of China, but staying overseas. Su set up a factory for his Teamson brand in Vietnam in reaction to China tariffs during Trump’s first term. He’s now in talks to manufacture in India. Trump hit both countries with significant tariffs last week, although they’re temporarily on hold.

Surrounded by her colorful baby products in California, Kenney told CNBC she considered opening her own manufacturing site. 

“But that’s way over my head and out of my budget,” she said. “I would love to be able to manufacture in the U.S., but the truth is that the infrastructure is not there.”

With fewer factories in the U.S. than in China, Kenney said the cost to make her products domestically would be double or triple what she pays now.

“The people in China are hungry for the work,” she said. “They’ll get back to you right away. They make sure you get your shipments right away. They’re on it.”

Ending ‘de minimis’

There is one tariff announcement Trump made that’s a boon for U.S-based sellers like Kenney: closing the loophole known as “de minimis.” 

This exemption allowed orders under $800 to avoid paying duties and taxes, and it’s what made absurdly low prices possible on direct-from-China sites like Temu, Alibaba and Shein. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it processed more than 1.3 billion de minimis shipments in 2024, up from over 1 billion shipments in 2023.

Chinese sellers send small orders directly to U.S. customers to keep shipments under the $800 limit. U.S. sellers like Kenney don’t often qualify for de minimis because they ship in large quantities by the pallet, bringing products to their warehouses for quality checks instead of shipping straight to customers from Chinese factories.

Kenney used to sell her most popular product, a set of six silicone baby spoons, for $9.99 on Amazon. She’s reduced the price to $7.99 to compete with knockoffs that sell for as low as $3 on Temu.

“I’ve even had them rip off all of my photos and content that I’ve created and use it to sell their knockoff products,” Kenney said.

Dusty Kenney showed CNBC some of her PrimaStella brand kids feeding products she sells on Amazon, at her warehouse in San Rafael, California, on March 25, 2025.

Katie tarasov

Trump briefly put de minimis on hold in February. Days later, he temporarily reinstated the loophole because huge numbers of Chinese packages started piling up at U.S. post offices and customs offices ill-equipped to collect duties at such a fast pace. 

The president on April 2 again announced that he was ending de minimis, effective May 2. 

The White House said “adequate systems” are now in place to collect tariffs. It added that the loophole is being closed to target “deceptive” Chinese-based shippers who “hide illicit substances, including synthetic opioids, in low-value packages to exploit the de minimis exemption.”

Foreman of Basic Fun said his Tonka Truck goes through many layers of inspection before landing on Amazon. 

“Anything that comes in on de minimis is not going through that safety scrutiny at all,” Foreman said. “Small packets that might have included a dress or some kind of tchotchke might have been stuffed with illegal drugs or things like that, might be counterfeit, might be bootlegs or knockoffs.”

Some Amazon sellers were benefiting from de minimis, particularly on its separate direct-from-China site Amazon Haul, which launched in November to compete with Temu. But killing de minimis will be a net positive for Amazon because it will hurt competitors like Temu, said Ives at Wedbush Securities. 

De minimis is a “loophole that’s been tugging at Amazon really for the last 18 months,” Ives said. 

What remains to be seen is how Trump’s tariffs will shift in coming weeks and what tariffs other countries will impose on U.S. goods. Those pose a risk for Amazon and its U.S. merchants that sell to foreign customers.

“It just has a cascading impact across the entire economy,” Goldberg of Publicis Groupe said. “Uncertainty is really bad for business, regardless of who wins or loses on any specific tariff.”

Continue Reading

Technology

Apple drops 4% after notching best day since 1998

Published

on

By

Apple drops 4% after notching best day since 1998

Apple shares declined more than 4% Thursday, giving back some of Wednesday’s gains that pushed the iPhone maker to its best day since January 1998.

The technology giant, down 13% so far this month and down 23% since the start of 2025, surged more than 15% Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on some tariffs and dropped the tariff on most countries to 10% to allow negotiations.

The news spurred a widespread market rally that pushed the Nasdaq Composite to its second-best day ever and biggest one-day gain since January 2001, while the S&P 500 recorded its third-biggest gain since World War II. The tech-heavy index was last down more than 3% as markets reversed course.

Tesla dropped 6%, while Meta Platforms and Nvidia declined about 4% each. Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon were last down about 2% each.

Semiconductor stocks reliant on production and manufacturing outside the U.S. also slumped, with the VanEck Semiconductor ETF shedding nearly 5% after a 17% gain and its best session ever. While the sector has been excluded from the recent tariffs, chipmakers have sold off on fears that tariffs will eat away at demand and hurt the economy. Targeted tariffs also remain on the horizon.

On Semiconductor, Marvell Technology, Micron Technology and Apple suppliers Qorvo and Skyworks Solutions plunged more than 7% each. Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom and Intel fell at least 5% each.

WATCH: Ives: Buckle up—Tech is heading into a period of major volatility

Continue Reading

Trending