A visitor watches an AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign on an animated screen at the Mobile World … [+] Congress (MWC), the telecom industry’s biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona. (Photo by Josep LAGO / AFP) (Photo by JOSEP LAGO/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images
The intersection of Web3 and artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly gaining traction, with blockchain technology playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of AI. As the world witnesses the exponential growth of AI, the need for decentralization, transparency, and democratization of AI resources has become more apparent than ever.

Industry experts are addressing the centralization issues in AI development by using blockchain technology to democratize access to AI resources, ensuring fair compensation for contributors, and allowing secure usage of proprietary data, aiming to reshape the AI space toward a more equitable future.

Democratizing Access To AI
One of the primary goals of decentralized AI is to democratize access to AI resources, including data, models, and compute power. This democratization is crucial as the AI industry grows and the computation costs of large data sets increase, which could otherwise limit the number of entities capable of competing in the space. Decentralized AI uses blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies to prevent a small group of dominant players from monopolizing the AI landscape, thus promoting a more equitable distribution of resources. This approach helps in addressing the problems of centralized AI systems, such as lack of innovation and transparency, by fostering a collaborative environment where contributions from a wide range of participants are incentivized and valued.

I contacted Miguel Palencia, Co-Founder of Qtum, a proof-of-stake blockchain that just onboarded 10,000 NVIDIA GPUs to power an AI image generator called Qtum Qurator and chatbot dubbed Qtum Solstice for his take on AI centralization. “Giving everyone true ownership and provenance of AI assets is of the utmost importance. There is a pressing need to address the concentration of AI power in the hands of a few companies. The current centralized structure of AI development raises concerns about the potential misuse of these sophisticated tools, which have the power to shape society. Decentralization serves as a means to achieve self-sovereignty and ensure that AI benefits everyone, not just a select few.”

Rewarding Contributors In The AI Economy
The rise of generative AI models like GPT-3 and ChatGPT brought to light the importance of fairly compensating contributors in the AI economy. These models rely on vast amounts of open-source data, such as Wikipedia, GitHub, and Reddit, to train and fine-tune their capabilities. However, the monetary benefits generated by these models often fail to trickle down to the original contributors of the data.

In fact, “Until now, the Times was the only major newspaper to take legal action against AI firms for copyright infringement,” according to Axios. Eight major U.S. newspapers, part of Alden Global Capital, are suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement in New York, claiming the firms used their copyrighted articles to train AI models without permission, which could fundamentally alter compensation for news content in the AI era.

Decentralized AI aims to solve this problem by creating a more equitable AI ecosystem. By leveraging blockchain technology, it becomes possible to track and reward contributors for their valuable data and resources. This approach incentivizes participation and fosters a more collaborative and inclusive AI development process where people can be compensated for their contributions.

Proprietary Data And AI Development
While open-source AI has its merits in accelerating model development and promoting transparency, it may not always be the optimal approach for businesses with proprietary data. Industries such as finance and healthcare often possess sensitive information that cannot be openly shared. Decentralized AI offers a solution by allowing these businesses to become part of the development flow without compromising their data privacy, utilizing technologies like federated learning, differential privacy, and homomorphic encryption to securely contribute to AI without exposing sensitive information.
Through decentralized AI platforms, businesses can contribute their proprietary data to build valuable models and access, which others can then utilize to create a web of applications and monetize them. This approach enables businesses to become shareholders in the entire AI ecosystem, earning rewards for their contributions without having to undertake the entire end-to-end process.
Shaping The Future Of Decentralized AI
As the AI industry continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, the role of decentralization becomes increasingly crucial. The Web3 community has the opportunity to shape what decentralized AI will look like in the coming years. It’s essential to build products that cater to the needs of millions of users outside the crypto space, focusing on simplicity and ease of use.
In my conversation with David Jones, CEO of Athene Network — a Layer 2 solution for Ethereum with AI integration with nearly 4 million users — he shared, “The lawsuit filed by The New York Times against OpenAI and Microsoft highlights the growing unease among content creators over the unauthorized use of their intellectual property. This case points to the broader implications of using copyrighted material without permission to train AI models that might compete with traditional information sources. As the industry evolves, we can expect these challenges to drive stricter regulations and ethical standards, which will be interesting to watch unfold for anyone on the outside looking in. I expect industries will be made over.”
As the convergence of Web3 and AI gains momentum, decentralized AI is poised to revolutionize the world as we know it. By democratizing access to AI resources, rewarding contributors fairly, and enabling businesses to leverage proprietary data securely, decentralized AI is paving the way for a future that might make us unable to recognize the turbulent times we’re in today.
While skepticism surrounding the viability of decentralized AI persists, industry experts remain confident in its transformative potential. AI could account for at least 30% of the market cap in the near future. We are witnessing the unfolding of this exciting new frontier in front of our eyes, and it is evident that the fusion of Web3 and AI is going to continue to redefine the way we perceive and interact with the world around us.

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