AI/LLM vs Internet…Will History Repeat Itself?

OpenAI launched ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, initially releasing it as a free "research preview" powered by GPT-3.5. November 30th 2026 will be the (4) anniversary of the public launch of ChatGPT.

October 13 1994…marked the launch of Netscape browser…after ~25yrs as a government DoD / R&D network, the Netscape browser is widely recognized as the actual commercial launch of the public Internet.

Therefore…for those familiar with "Internet Time", November 30, 2026 should be seen as the equivalent of Oct 13, 1998.

So…1998, (4) years after the launch of Netscape…what were the seminal moments for the Internet? I ask AI for the top 10 commercial/technical milestones that shaped the Internet in 1998 and got the following:

1. The Incorporation and Launch of Google (September 4, 1998) Larry Page and Sergey Brin formally incorporated Google Inc. in Menlo Park, California, after receiving initial angel funding (including $100,000 from Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim).

Creation of ICANN (September 30, 1998) The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was founded under a U.S. Department of Commerce mandate to oversee internet protocol addresses, domain names, and root server system management.

3. Netscape Open-Sources Communicator and Creates Mozilla (January–March 1998) Facing intense competitive pressure from Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Netscape announced it would make its source code freely available to developers, officially launching the Mozilla project.

4. Founding of Confinity / PayPal (December 1998) Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek co-founded Confinity, initially designed to transmit payments securely between PalmPilot devices via infrared beaming. PayPal was an early trusted payment rail that enabled peer-to-peer digital commerce and online auctions to scale globally. (FYI…Elon didn't join PayPal until 2000).

5. AOL Acquires Netscape for $4.2 Billion (November 24, 1998) America Online (AOL), the reigning dial-up consumer internet giant, announced the mega-acquisition of Netscape Communications in a stock swap valued at $4.2 billion. The deal underscored the strategic value of web portals, browser distribution, and digital advertising real estate, consolidating AOL's consumer footprint while formally concluding the first phase of the historic "Browser Wars."

U.S. Department of Justice Files Antitrust Suit Against Microsoft (United States v. Microsoft, May 18, 1998) The DOJ, alongside 20 state attorneys general, filed a landmark antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging the tech giant abused its Windows operating system monopoly by bundling Internet Explorer to crush rival web browsers.
Passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) (October 1998) Signed into U.S. law, the DMCA adapted intellectual property rights to the digital era while crucially establishing "Safe Harbor" protections (Section 512) for online service providers. By shielding internet platforms from direct liability for user-uploaded infringing content — provided they complied with notice-and-takedown procedures — the DMCA established the legal safe haven necessary for user-generated content, e-commerce marketplaces, and media platforms to exist. (Personal Note: While probably a good thing in the beginning, resulted is some of the irresponsible content problems seen in social media today.)
Release of Windows 98 and Deep Web Integration (June 25, 1998) Microsoft launched Windows 98, marking the first mainstream desktop operating system to weave internet protocols directly into the shell interface via Active Desktop, native USB support, and pre-integrated Internet Explorer 4.0. By making internet navigation and dial-up networking virtually seamless for hundreds of millions of consumer and corporate PCs, it fueled the explosive late-1990s surge in everyday internet adoption.

9. Publication of the XML 1.0 Recommendation by the W3C (February 10, 1998) The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) officially published Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 as an open web standard. XML decoupled data representation from display styling, creating a universal, human-readable data-interchange format that became the foundational structural backbone for web APIs, B2B data exchanges, SOAP/REST web services, and RSS feeds for the next decade.

10**. The Dot-Com IPO Delirium: Broadcast.com and the 1998 Capital Inrush** Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner took Broadcast.com (an early pioneer in streaming audio and video broadcasts over the internet) public on July 17, 1998. The stock skyrocketed 249% on its first trading day, setting an all-time record at the time. Along with massive public market debuts by internet players like eBay (September 1998) and the founding of Akamai to solve internet video delivery bottlenecks, it signaled the hyper-acceleration of the Dot-com financial boom.

See any parallels..then and now? AI get it wrong…miss anything?

I have to admit, I started working at AOL in 1998, one of the best jobs I've had. Learned a lot when I was there. People forget that AOL was a technology leader back then. AOL showed the industry how to scale access to large Internet Systems. But later on, companies like Google showed better insight and focus, understanding that owning the Services that the Net required at scale vs. the customers was the secret to success.

It's said "history repeats itself". So…some of the biggest winner, losers, and policy issues made 4 years after the commercial launch/success of the Internet could be playing out on the 4 year anniversary of ChatGPT.

Thoughts?

T.O.I.F -