The AI industry has long captivated the human imagination, appearing in various forms of media such as movies, cartoons, and real-life applications. Computers function, reason, and operate on behalf of advanced individuals – well, except in the Dune films.
Over the past five years, artificial intelligence has captured the world’s attention, rivaled only by the COVID-19 pandemic. People are captivated by the industry’s remarkable expansion and the endless possibilities it offers. This growth is projected to continue rapidly throughout the decade’s final years. According to Statista, the industry, currently valued at $184 billion, is expected to reach nearly $900 billion by 2030.
As the industry continues to play an increasingly important role in our lives, it will undoubtedly influence our thoughts, interactions, and everyday activities in the future. We will have a deep connection with it, potentially even more potent than our current relationship with the internet.
Like an IT project manager, mega-corporations like OpenAI, IBM Watson, Google AI, and Amazon Machine Learning control the most powerful AI systems and models, even though they are still in their early stages of development. Big Tech firms possess extensive data hubs where they train, develop, and market these models to users. This raises a valid and understandable concern among the general population. Should we allow this significant and influential technological innovation to be governed by the latest billionaire?
Satoshi was cautious about the centralized financial institutions following the global economic crisis in 2008 and developed Bitcoin as a solution to the issue of centralization. Just like an IT project manager, AI requires comparable solutions to alleviate the influence of large corporations on what has been hailed as the “most significant technological advancement in recent decades,” as stated by Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, in a blog post in 2023.
Current AI industry structural issue
As mentioned earlier, AI technology will become a part of daily life for nearly everyone, assisting us in accomplishing mundane and significant tasks. For example, the advancement of artificial general intelligence (AGI) has led to the development of “AI secretaries” or AI agents that can assist with various tasks, such as managing your schedule, handling monthly bills, creating a personalized diet plan, or curating a playlist. “Hey, AI agent X, please create an R&B playlist for me. I would love to include some of my favorite artists like Beyonce and Ne-Yo.”
Although the data in the examples above may appear basic and straightforward, they hold significant value and personal significance for most individuals. Is it a good idea to share that data with Big Tech firms, considering their track record of prioritizing profit over personal privacy?
Even more concerning is that AI is being trained to take over essential roles in fields like therapy and coaching, which are crucial for the well-being of millions, if not billions, of individuals. Countless individuals will openly express their deepest thoughts, desires, fears, intimate fantasies, personal admissions, and moments of embarrassment. Who would entrust such information to big tech? ChatGPT is gaining popularity as an AI tool for individuals seeking answers to their most personal inquiries.
This is a significant issue with current AI systems and models – the concentration of AI technology, control over the data used to train the AI models, and user privacy concerns. Many developers worldwide are actively developing solutions to create sustainable AI models while ensuring our personal data privacy.
Integrating blockchain with AI allows users to experience the advantages of this decentralized and privacy-preserving technology while avoiding the negative aspects associated with Big Tech.
The emergence of decentralised AI services
Blockchain technology has been widely used to address the effects of centralization in the financial sector and most other areas, such as supply chains and healthcare.
Ultimately, the technology is becoming more deeply ingrained in artificial intelligence, contributing to the industry’s democratization and decentralization. With its immutable ledgers, the technology has improved data security and transparency, revolutionizing global value exchange and establishing new operational efficiency and openness benchmarks.
The secret to a free, open, and decentralized AI environment may lie in combining blockchain technology with artificial intelligence, two of today’s most sought-after technologies. Decentralized AI technologies aim to democratize access to AI resources, such as models, data, and computing capacity. This is essential for reducing oligopolized AI structures, which restrict the number of players in the market because of the high cost of data sets and computing complexity required to train AI models.
For example, NeurochainAI suggests a Decentralised AI Infrastructure As a Service (DeAIAS) as a novel response to the drawbacks of centralized AI systems. According to its website, NeurochainAI’s simple goal is to “encourage cooperation and coordination among various AI stakeholders” to dissolve the obstacles of monopolization and centralization.
Developers and the general public gain from decentralized AI in several ways:
- Decentralisation: Like a network architect, a decentralized AI ecosystem enables a community of users to collaborate and share resources like computing power, data storage, algorithm processing, and model validation. By leveraging a global community of users, the costs associated with building models can be significantly reduced, which is highly beneficial for any company.
- Ready-to-use infrastructure: NeurochainAI offers developers a convenient platform that accelerates the development of their AI dApps, resulting in significant cost savings compared to traditional methods. This fosters more incredible innovation throughout the ecosystem, rather than relying on a handful of companies for all technological advancements.
- Incentivisation: One significant advantage of a decentralized AI platform is the ability to incentivize the community to contribute their resources. For example, contributors to NeurochainAI are rewarded with $NCN, creating a collaborative ecosystem where every participant contributes to shaping the future of AI technology.
- Privacy and security of data: Decentralized AI also provides a level of data privacy. Just like data scientists, users have the power to control their data on blockchain technology. They can decide which data to provide for training AI models.
- Active participation by the community: NeurochainAI is created by and for the community. Community members play an active role in critical AI training processes, including data curation and validation, algorithm processing, and model validation. This allows for democratizing AI development and enhances the models with a wide range of real-world inputs.
The future of decentralised AI services
The rapid rise of artificial intelligence guarantees that many businesses and people cannot construct or train their AI models, given the enormous processing power required. While centralized cloud computing was a straightforward answer for past computing power problems, artificial intelligence is unique.
Decentralization addresses this by building a network of nodes—computers—that use CPUs’ enormous unrealized processing capability. Using a modular architecture, decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) improves scalability, offers a less expensive source of processing power than purchasing additional servers, and fosters community involvement in training the AI models, enabling dApps to learn and disseminate knowledge amongst one another.
Although decentralized artificial intelligence is still in its infancy, the development of platforms like NeurochainAI will provide Big Tech a run for its money — addressing the monopolized character of artificial intelligence, computing complexity, and user privacy of data.
