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| By Jurica Dujmovic |
In my previous article, I asked an important question: Which cryptocurrencies and decentralized applications, or dApps, are poised to be the vanguards in this pioneering integration of AI and blockchain technology?
As we delve into the dynamic world of AI-integrated cryptocurrencies and dApps, it's evident that 2024 is shaping up to be a landmark year for this synergy. The fusion of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology is not just a theoretical concept but a rapidly unfolding reality, with numerous projects already making significant strides.
Here are three notable ones that have caught my attention:
SingularityNET
Launched in 2017 by Ben Goertzel, SingularityNET (AGIX, Not Yet Rated) aims to integrate artificial intelligence with blockchain technology to form a decentralized AI marketplace. SingularityNET's primary goal is to democratize access to AI technologies. It facilitates a marketplace where AI services can be bought and sold, leveraging blockchain for transparency and security.
Its native token, AGIX, serves as the currency within this ecosystem. They are used to conduct transactions, incentivize participation and reward contributions. SingularityNET offers a range of AI services, spanning various sectors. AGIX's role extends beyond SingularityNET, with potential collaborations and integrations across different blockchain and AI projects.
Cortex
Cortex (CTXC, Not Yet Rated) aims to bring advanced AI capabilities directly onto the blockchain by overcoming key limitations of existing smart-contract platforms.
While blockchains like Ethereum (ETH, “B+”) have enabled a new world of decentralized applications through smart-contract virtual machines, these systems severely restrict the computational and storage resources available. As a result, running machine learning models for image recognition, natural language processing and other AI tasks has so far been unfeasible on-chain.
Cortex seeks to change this status quo by expanding the computational capacity and instruction set exposed to smart contracts.
The project centers on a new blockchain tailored for AI workloads, with innovations at four layers:
Computation Layer: Cortex incorporates new virtual machine instructions like floating point operations that are crucial for numerical computations in machine learning. This expanded instruction set unlocks new potential for smart contracts to run AI algorithms directly.
Storage Layer: Storing and accessing the large datasets required to train machine learning models is enabled through innovations in Cortex's decentralized storage layer. Advanced compression algorithms and optimizations allow large model files to be stored on-chain.
Incentive Layer: CTXC, the blockchain’s native token, aligns incentives between contributors of AI models, validators that run inferences on-chain and general users. This ecosystem facilitates the exchange of AI algorithms and services on the platform.
Accuracy and Privacy: Unique mechanisms like formal verification of models and trusted execution environments protect the accuracy and privacy of on-chain AI computations. This ensures reliability and confidentiality when running inferences through Cortex smart contracts.
By combining these capabilities at the intersection of blockchain and AI, Cortex unlocks the ability to infuse advanced intelligence directly into decentralized applications.
Everything from finance to healthcare and e-commerce to gaming is prime for disruption by this new generation of AI-powered smart contracts pioneered by Cortex. With a solid technical architecture and thorough understanding of challenges in fusing AI and blockchains, the Cortex project offers immense promise going forward.
Fetch.ai
Fetch.ai (FET, “B”) is an ambitious project seeking to enable wide-ranging automation through software agents utilizing AI and blockchain tech.
Founded in 2017 by a team of academics and entrepreneurs, Fetch.ai allows users to create "uAgents," — lightweight programs that leverage AI to operate autonomously on behalf of users.
At the core of Fetch.ai is the idea that virtually any entity — individual, organization, device or data source — can be represented by a uAgent. These agents handle tasks like scheduling, searching, negotiating and executing transactions based on dynamic inputs and machine learning models. They interact with other agents in Fetch.ai's "Agentverse," a virtual environment populated by digital representatives.
To make agent creation accessible, Fetch.ai provides tools and templates that abstract away much of the complexity. It uses innovations like large language models to allow for simple communication between agents and users. And Fetch.ai's introduction of DeltaV in 2023 brought more consumer-friendly AI services like a conversational travel booking bot.
The native FET token powers Fetch.ai's proof-of-stake blockchain. FET is used for staking, governance voting and paying fees. The token aligns incentives between providers and consumers of resources on the network.
By tackling AI, multi-agent systems and blockchain in unison, Fetch.ai demonstrates how blending cutting-edge technologies can enable automation at a grand scale. If successful, Fetch.ai's digital agents could pervade many facets of economics and society — scheduling rides, placing orders, managing finances and potentially much more with little direct human involvement.
The project shows immense promise in launching increasingly intelligent and autonomous software.
There you have it. The integration of AI and blockchain technologies is transforming the capabilities of decentralized systems, offering solutions to previously intractable issues that came with integrating AI into the blockchain: scalability, storage and processing power.
The more I delve into the progress being made, the more I realize how this pioneering work is setting the stage for what could truly be decentralized and open-source AI.
Just imagine, AI beyond Microsoft, OpenAI and their machinations.
Every new breakthrough reveals a piece of the puzzle of how AI can enrich the blockchain environment, and this fuels my excitement for what's next. To think that decentralized networks could soon not only execute transactions but also make intelligent, self-learned decisions is nothing short of thrilling.
The future of AI on blockchain holds incredible promise, and I am genuinely excited to be part of this journey. This is shaping up to be a truly interesting year.
Best,
Jurica
