Individually, we have very little power, but together we have a great deal of power.
In response to a series of Medium articles by Patrick Neeman—like this one that addressed issues of AI governance, fairness, and standardization—publisher Louis Rosenfeld invited Patrick and me to come on his show and talk about AI and standards. A live audience attended, asking questions that took the conversation further.
If you missed the live panel discussion last week, no worries; a video of the conversation is available for your pleasure ℅ Rosenfeld Media, who put on the event. The video is free to watch; to do so, you just need to register for a free account.
From the Rosenverse:
A generation ago, Jeffrey Zeldman helped end the browser wars by making one case relentlessly: build to standards, not to vendors. That fight is back—now over how AI agents render interfaces across Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, Teams, and Slack. In this session, Zeldman joins Patrick Neeman to trace the line from “best viewed in Netscape” to “best experienced in one assistant,” and to have a call to arms for agentic UI actually needs. Expect hard-won lessons from the first standards war, and a clear-eyed look at MCP and A2UI.
Key Insights
- Generative AI platforms lack unified standards, causing costly, fragmented UX development.
- The web standards movement succeeded through community collaboration and public pressure.
- Separation of content and design enabled accessibility and future-proofing on the web.
- Current AI interfaces offer little control over the design details compared to traditional web design.
- Proprietary AI companies may resist compatibility to preserve exclusive user bases.
- AI tools risk devaluing human creativity and make credit and provenance recognition difficult.
- Young designers and engineers face uncertainty in career paths due to AI’s disruptive impact.
- Open source and community-driven efforts are critical in establishing AI interface standards.
- Historical patterns in tech show crises and revolutions tend to “rhyme” over decades.
- Activism in tech today requires new models due to the vastly different power dynamics. (If you thought arguing with Microsoft and Netscape was tough, consider fighting with the new lords of AI.)
Give it a watch!
https://rosenverse.rosenfeldmedia.com/videos/agent-standards-best-viewed-in-every-assistant/
(And while you’re in the Rosenverse, check out the many other excellent video conversations that are freely available there. You might even buy a book.)