The web, and now AI chatbots, keeps facing the same quiet choice: an open ecosystem where information is roughly free, or a closed one where only the lucky few curate their own view. Open access is worth fighting for, in AI as much as on the web. Keeping it open means the way it’s paid for has to evolve. More people now get their answers without visiting a page, and ads alone are struggling to carry the web the way they used to. It’s a scary time for anyone who publishes. It’s also a chance to move away from an economy of clicks and attention, toward something a bit more qualitative. I don’t think publishers can lead it. Years of abuse and monopoly have tied their hands, so the change probably has to come from the top.