The influence of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT is already beginning to reshape the web, and we’re just getting started. If Web 2.0 was about user-generated content and social media, what’s coming next might be Web 2.LLM — or maybe Web ∞ — where the web becomes more like a conversation than a publication.
Here —according to ChatGPT— are some directions the web might evolve:
From Search to Synthesis
- Then: You’d Google a question and click through a dozen links.
- Now/Future: You ask an LLM and get a coherent, human-like answer distilled from multiple sources.
This flips the paradigm from “click and explore” to “ask and receive.” Websites that exist primarily to answer questions (wikis, how-to sites, blogs) may see traffic drop unless they adapt to LLM-first design.
Websites as APIs, Not Pages
Today’s websites are built for human eyes — with layouts, navigation, and ads. But LLMs don’t care about visuals. They want structured, clean data. Expect a rise in LLM-friendly endpoints: simplified text, open APIs, or machine-readable formats. In this world, LLMs become the primary audience, not humans.
Personalized, Contextual Web
Instead of a static homepage, imagine a personal AI assistant remixing the web just for you:
- “Show me news I’ll care about.”
- “Summarize recent posts from my favorite blogs.”
- “Turn this forum thread into a one-paragraph brief.”
The web becomes a subjective mirror, customized moment-by-moment.
Synthetic Everything
LLMs and generative tools are flooding the web with synthetic content — helpful, spammy, and everything in between. This could either:
- Elevate quality with AI-assisted content creation and summarization.
- Drown us in noise as SEO farms spin out junk at scale.
We’re entering an arms race between intelligent synthesis and intelligent filtering.
Trust and Provenance Become Crucial
As the web is re-voiced by AIs, we’ll crave verifiable origins:
- Who wrote this?
- Can this claim be traced to a reliable source?
- What’s real vs. synthesized?
Watch for watermarking, provenance tracking, and possibly blockchain-backed validation.
A Return to the Small Web?
As the public web gets noisier and more AI-mediated, there may be renewed interest in raw, personal, human spaces — newsletters, niche forums, hand-crafted blogs, and intentional communities.
Authenticity becomes a premium resource.
Possible Labels for What’s Coming
- Web 3.0 (in a different sense than blockchain hype)
- The Conversational Web
- The Synthesized Web
Will the web be remade?
Yes. Is it better or worse? That depends on whether we — the humans — manage to steer the AI or let it run amok. The internet may stop being a library and become more like a personal oracle — but oracles, as we know, are tricky things.