Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Presented at FITC's Web Unleashed 2025 conference
webunleashed.ca
In the early days of the internet, we existed in a lovely symbiotic relationship with our technology. We created, and various technologies offered us an audience. We used technology to craft our vision and the tools helped ease our path. We used technology to learn and grow and connect at a faster rate than we’ve ever been able to.
Slowly over the past decade, we’ve seen the scales of this relationship shift. With the advent of “GenAI” and other machine learning marketing schemes, there’s been an acceleration of this shift toward imbalance. What does it mean when we work for our technology instead of the other way around? And can we come back from that?
Five Things Audience Members Will Learn
How the ecosystem of the web has evolved over time
Incentive structures for the past web and the potential future
Philosophy of Mind
What happens when we give up control of our creativity
How we can take back control and push for a rebalancing of scales
Target Audience
People on the fence about use of AI
Bryan Robinson, Executive Director, When We Play
Detroit, USA
Bryan is a developer educator with almost 20 years of experience building and teaching for the web. He’s the executive director of When We Play—a non-profit specializing in connecting communities and families through games and creativity.
While he loves using modern technology, he’s old-school at heart. Give him clean CSS and well-structured HTML and he’s happy. Especially if the DX is solid.
Bryan lives in the Detroit area in the US with his wife, son, and ancient cat (she’s been around for the entirety of his professional career on the web…). He’s always up to talk about board games, TTRPGs, or video games … oh and also the state of the web.
Check out all our events at fitc.ca
Presented at FITC's Web Unleashed 2025 conference
webunleashed.ca
In the early days of the internet, we existed in a lovely symbiotic relationship with our technology. We created, and various technologies offered us an audience. We used technology to craft our vision and the tools helped ease our path. We used technology to learn and grow and connect at a faster rate than we’ve ever been able to.
Slowly over the past decade, we’ve seen the scales of this relationship shift. With the advent of “GenAI” and other machine learning marketing schemes, there’s been an acceleration of this shift toward imbalance. What does it mean when we work for our technology instead of the other way around? And can we come back from that?
Five Things Audience Members Will Learn
How the ecosystem of the web has evolved over time
Incentive structures for the past web and the potential future
Philosophy of Mind
What happens when we give up control of our creativity
How we can take back control and push for a rebalancing of scales
Target Audience
People on the fence about use of AI
Bryan Robinson, Executive Director, When We Play
Detroit, USA
Bryan is a developer educator with almost 20 years of experience building and teaching for the web. He’s the executive director of When We Play—a non-profit specializing in connecting communities and families through games and creativity.
While he loves using modern technology, he’s old-school at heart. Give him clean CSS and well-structured HTML and he’s happy. Especially if the DX is solid.
Bryan lives in the Detroit area in the US with his wife, son, and ancient cat (she’s been around for the entirety of his professional career on the web…). He’s always up to talk about board games, TTRPGs, or video games … oh and also the state of the web.
Check out all our events at fitc.ca
