Welcome back to The Better Web newsletter!

Hello everybody!

As I keep building this newsletter, I decided to rename it. Recently I've received feedback that the name ‘Thinking Web:5’ sounds too technical and nerdy. The bursting of the Web3 bubble also contributes to the skepticism. So I decided to rename the newsletter. I ended up just naming it after what this is all about:

The Better Web.

Thank you for staying with me.

This is the round-up of my Better Web week. Five links show you what, in my opinion, has been important for a Better Web during the last few days.

I write about a decentralized web with a priority on privacy and safety. If you are an activist or NGO worker I provide links and information for you regularly.

Feel free to forward the newsletter, share it, or recommend it to friends and colleagues.

And here we go.

1. AI ruled this week, Pt. I

Just a short recap.

MONDAY:

- Stanford releases Alpaca 7B

- Google announces Med-PaLM 2, a new medical LLM

TUESDAY:

- OpenAI publishes GPT4

- Anthropic releases Claude

- Google announces the PaLM API & MakerSuite

- Google adds GenerativeAI to workspaces

WEDNESDAY:

- Midjourney releases V5 (for all paying users)

- Stripe documents + GPT

THURSDAY:

- Microsoft releases an AI Copilot for the 365 suite

There are a lot of tools working with AI that are going to support us a lot. For an overview, I recommend this page. It collects all tools and I’m sure, there is one for you as well.

2. AI ruled this week, Pt. II

But AI is certainly not just the promising technology that the industry is keen to sell us. All of the recent developments and releases have questionable sides to them too. For example, there have already been experiments with AI this week, which were supposed to create chemical weapons. These have failed - yet.

But of course, influential parties want to see this technology evolve. The link shows that Google is selling its AI to the Pentagon.

3. AI ruled this week, Pt. III

Speaking of the dangers of AI. Many experts see a danger in the fact that an AI could eventually take over the fortunes of the world. But don't worry, because OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has checked if this might happen. The result is of course NO. 😀

4. Internet Activism

This is something I am working on myself: Using the power of digital tools to support people in crisis regions or times. With the merger of Acter and Effektio, we are building a powerful tool for people in need and for activists.

But these guys build faster than we do. Have a look at Internet Activism, a NGO from California. 💪

5. Watchtower 2023

Want to stay up to date on the correlation between international elections and internet shutdowns? Then save this page from AccessNow.

Just nice!

Do you like rock music? Of course, you do. Here you get guitar riffs from 1965 to 2022. All in one piece. Have fun with it, and have a good weekend!

Thanks for reading this.

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See you next week!