The surge in mainstream artificial intelligence (AI) tools over the past few years has stirred up the crypto and blockchain industry to explore decentralized alternatives to large-scale technological products.
The synergy of AI and blockchain is built on addressing the risks of centralized ownership and the risks of access to data that enhances AI. The theory is that decentralization can be mitigated for the entire AI economy driven by data owned by a handful of technology giants such as Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), Alibaba (9988) and Tencent (0700).
It is still unknown whether this is a critical issue, and it is far less likely to solve the blockchain industry. But what’s clear is that crypto venture capitalists (VCSs) are willing to spend millions of dollars of discoveries. Decentralized AI has so far raised $917 million in VC and private equity money, according to Tracxn of Startup Deal Platform.
The question is whether the trend towards blockchain-based AI investments is still built on hype or is it becoming real?
Blockchain investment firm Theta Capital described AI X Crypto as the “inevitable backbone of AI” in its recent “satellite view” report.
AI Agent
“There is no tendency to stand out more than the intersection of AI and Crypto,” the report states using an example of an AI agent that trades on the blockchain and launches tokens.
While this may seem like a more refined measurement, Theta argues that it is the route to tackling some of the AI problems that only cryptography can solve.
“Crypto Wallets enables autonomous agents to participate in financial markets,” according to the report. “Decentralized token networks bootstraps the supply side of the major AI infrastructure for calculation, data and energy.”
The conclusions of the report are far from hype or speculation. AI X Crypto is “The New Meta.” Meta stands for the term “metagame” borrowed from a game that refers to a major way of playing with regard to characters, strategies, or movements based on highly competitive situations.
Distributed AI
Alex Pack, managing partner at blockchain venture capital firm Hack VC, described Web3 AI as “Alpha’s biggest source of investment today” in its “Satellite View” report.
Hack VC has dedicated 41% of its latest funds to Web3 AI. This considers the main challenges that build the main challenges of building a decentralized alternative to the AI economy.
“The rapid evolution of AI is generating large-scale efficiency, but also increasing centralization,” Pack said.
“The intersection of crypto and AI is the biggest investment opportunity in this space, offering an open, decentralized alternative.”
One of Hack VC’s most prominent portfolio companies is Grass. This encourages users to join AI networks by providing unused internet bandwidth in exchange for tokens.
It is designed to replace large companies that install software code in apps to rub user data.
“Users unconsciously donate bandwidth without compensation,” Grass founder Andrej Radonjic said in a report in Theta.
“Grass offers an alternative (by) to form a large opt-in, peer-to-peer network that can create high-quality data at the scale of Google and Microsoft.”
The scary AI “Takeover”
Decentralized AI poses risk to investors, Theta acknowledges. It could lead to a surge in all the unwanted facets of the already existing Internet. In the cryptographic world, this example might be creating a meme token. Suspicious support, cleaning trades, pumps and dumps can all be handled more efficiently by AI engines than humans.
Some VCs view blockchain as the basis for mitigation. Olaf Carlson-Wee, CEO and Founder of PolyChain, provided examples of proof of humanity mechanisms to ensure that users are human and are interfering with spam through micropayments or spam.
“A cost of $0.01 when sending an email will destroy the economics of spam while still remaining affordable for the average user,” he said in the report.
With blockchain potentially offering some of these safeguards, Carlsonwee believes that AI will support the digital and financial systems as it could outperform people in the market. He argues that this reality is willing to accept, rather than feared as a kind of dark dystopia.
“As time passes, AI systems evolve into long-term capital allocation factors, predicting trends and opportunities in the next few years. (This) humans outsource funding because of their superior ability to make data-driven decisions.”
“The AI acquisition will not be a war we will lose — it will be a proposal we agree with,” he concluded.
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