Beyond the Feed: The Weekend Read

The Internet Is Dead. Long Live the Internet.

This is Beyond the Feed, a space where we pause the rapid scroll to think about what’s coming next. Today, we’re diving into the fifth prediction for 2025, a profound moment in the evolution of the internet. This is no mere iteration of technology—it’s a foundational shift that will redefine the web and, by extension, reshape our culture, creativity, and even how we understand ourselves.

The story begins with the web as we know it. Over the past two decades, the internet has been a predominantly visual, screen-based experience. It is a space of scrolling and clicking, of curated feeds and search results. But this flat web is collapsing under the weight of its own enshittification. The devices and interfaces that once defined it—desktops, laptops, smartphones—are giving way to something much more pervasive.

Web 3.0, the next phase, will not be something you look at or interact with. It will be something you inhabit, something that inhabits you. It is the invisible web, ambient and autonomous, powered by technologies like agentic AI, wearables, and interconnected APIs. In this world, the internet will cease to be an interface and become something we simply exist within.

From Tools to Agents: The Leap Beyond the Screen

The philosopher Marshall McLuhan once said that technologies are extensions of ourselves. A hammer extends the hand; a microscope extends the eye. The internet, however, has extended the mind, becoming the infrastructure for how we discover, create, and connect. But as this infrastructure grows more invisible and more autonomous, it begins to reshape not just what we do but who we are.

Take the rise of agentic AI, for example. Unlike the tools we’ve grown used to—search engines, apps, even current AI systems like ChatGPT—agents are designed to act on our behalf. These systems are not merely tools; they are actors. An AI agent doesn’t ask for your input every step of the way; it anticipates your needs, adapts to your preferences, and autonomously executes tasks.

Imagine an AI that books your travel, designs your itinerary, and reconfigures it in real time when your flight is delayed. Or one that learns your creative habits and co-authors a novel, suggesting plot twists you hadn’t considered. These aren’t distant possibilities; they are the emerging reality. In industries like cybersecurity, insurance, and even chip design, agentic AI is already reducing timelines and scaling productivity beyond human capabilities. By the end of 2025, these systems will be capable of managing complex workflows and even entire enterprises.

The Internet Disappears

As these agents proliferate, so too does ambient AI, the infrastructure that makes the web invisible. This is the internet no longer as a destination but as an environment. The actions you once performed—searching, clicking, buying—will happen seamlessly in the background. APIs will connect devices, systems, and spaces, creating a network so integrated that it feels as natural as air.

None of this is as far off as you might think