--- title: How We Let Silicon Valley Steal the Future (And How... description: Tech's early promise of openness and empowerment has given way to consolidation and extraction, the author argues. APIs that were once free now sit behind... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-let-silicon-valley-steal-the-future-and-how-developers-can-take-it-back--n3mievtmc twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How We Let Silicon Valley Steal the Future (And How Developers Can Take It Back) | daily.dev og:description: Tech's early promise of openness and empowerment has given way to consolidation and extraction, the author argues. APIs that were once free now sit behind... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-let-silicon-valley-steal-the-future-and-how-developers-can-take-it-back--n3mievtmc og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/N3mIeVTMc.png og:image:alt: How We Let Silicon Valley Steal the Future (And How Developers Can Take It Back) og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How We Let Silicon Valley Steal the Future (And How Developers Can Take It Back) **[DEV](https://daily.dev/sources/devto)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Tech's early promise of openness and empowerment has given way to consolidation and extraction, the author argues. APIs that were once free now sit behind paywalls, open source repos have increasingly become loss-leaders or training grounds for proprietary foundational models, and platforms have followed an 'enshittification' cycle of courting then squeezing users and developers. AI is framed in the prevailing narrative as a replacement mechanism to cut labor costs rather than an amplifier of creativity. Steps proposed to course-correct include supporting true open source, favoring protocols over platforms (ActivityPub, local-first software, self-hosting), and questioning whether each feature actually helps users or just optimizes engagement. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Trading openness for convenience: From app stores to AI assistants](https://daily.dev/posts/trading-openness-for-convenience-from-app-stores-to-ai-assistants-8mbjcqcp2) · All Things Open · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How we’ll fight the platform war against Big AI](https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-ll-fight-the-platform-war-against-big-ai-4tgsncyln) · Anil Dash · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-let-silicon-valley-steal-the-future-and-how-developers-can-take-it-back--n3mievtmc) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How We Let Silicon Valley Steal the Future (And How Developers Can Take It Back)","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-let-silicon-valley-steal-the-future-and-how-developers-can-take-it-back--n3mievtmc","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-let-silicon-valley-steal-the-future-and-how-developers-can-take-it-back--n3mievtmc"},"datePublished":"2026-10-29T22:11:23.285Z","dateModified":"2026-10-29T22:11:46.926Z","description":"Tech's early promise of openness and empowerment has given way to consolidation and extraction, the author argues. 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