AI and blockchain: a field ripe with opportunity – Fetch.ai CEO

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(Kitco News) – In the months since ChatGPT was first revealed to the world, the internet has gone from jubilation and fascination to a growing list of concerns about the effect that uncontrolled artificial intelligence will have on society.

The blockchain ecosystem responded to the AI ​​revolution with a surge in token prices for AI-related crypto projects, but after the initial wave, many of these tokens have seen sharp corrections as investors now look for substance beyond the hype.

To better understand what the future of AI and blockchain holds, Kitco Crypto had a conversation with Humayan Sheikh, the founder and CEO of Fetch.ai (FET), an artificial intelligence lab building an open, permissionless, decentralized machine learning network for crypto. economy.

According to Sheikh, there are many applications for AI when it comes to blockchain technology, such as AI in finance, “where it can be trained on financial data to improve decision-making and detect trends or anomalies.” Blockchain developers have also started turning to AI to spin up smart contracts, he said.

With Fetch.ai in particular, AI has proven useful in improving the projects’ Web3 tools through the introduction of large language models in the Fetch.ai wallet, Sheikh said. “Wallet users can now enter text in the chat field to call information into the wallet. The utility and user experience can be greatly enhanced by artificial intelligence, and we will continue to explore wallet integrations.”

Future development will focus on the ability for users to take action via text input, such as the ability to give a verbal command to “send eighty dollars to John.”

Other applications include the creation of AI-trained autonomous agents “that can learn and predict what useful economic work the user requires and act on those learnings with minimal or no intervention,” Sheikh noted. “AI-based agents then become a type of personal assistant that can take the drudgery out of everyday life.”

ChatGPT-like services

As for how blockchain platforms can benefit from services like ChatGPT, one of the primary use cases that Sheikh noted is task automation. “Language models such as ChatGPT can be used to understand and interpret input that can then be used in conjunction with [the] Fetch.ai tech stack to execute a response. It could be as simple as ‘if’ $50 enters account 1 ‘then’ Alice pays. It can also be extremely complex.”

He added that the concept of how large language models and machine learning can improve products and services is being explored by a wide range of projects, from blockchain-based games to DeFi applications and voting and governance in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

Next big advance

Asked what he sees as the next big advance to come from the combination of blockchain and AI, Sheikh said it would be “the development of autonomous systems that can operate on decentralized networks.”

“These systems can leverage blockchain’s transparency and security to make automated decisions, execute transactions and perform complex tasks without the need for intermediaries or centralized control,” he said. “This can lead to significant efficiency gains, especially in areas such as supply chain management, finance and logistics.”

Another promising area is the integration of AI with Web3. “It has the potential to create new, decentralized applications that are more secure and transparent than traditional applications,” Sheikh noted. “By integrating AI with Web3, it will be possible to create intelligent, autonomous applications that can operate independently without the need for human intervention.”

AI-powered analytics tools operating on blockchain networks are also a possibility. They can enable organizations to gain deeper insights into their data while maintaining the privacy and security of sensitive information.

“The combination of blockchain and AI could usher in a new era of autonomous, decentralized systems that enable greater efficiency, security and transparency across a wide range of industries,” he said.

And to critics who say the recent gains in AI-related tokens are all based on hype, Sheikh pushed back, noting that AI and agent technology are maturing. “We are coming out of an R&D phase and starting to reveal working technology. We are generating interest on this basis, particularly as potential applications in supply chain management and energy distribution.”

The Fetch.ai CEO pointed to the platform’s agent technology as one of its most promising applications to date. “We believe that there is enormous potential for this technology to transform various industries and create more efficient, decentralized systems.”

In the coming days, Fetch plans to launch a new agent-based DEX for peer-to-peer trading that addresses some of the key pain points for DeFi users, such as removing the centralized pool of funds to protect users from blanket pulling. Carpet pulling is the source of millions of dollars worth of lost funds, but the removal of a “centralized honey pot” with an agent-based DEX makes carpet pulling theoretically impossible.

Dangers of integrating AI with blockchain

The biggest threat to platforms that use both AI and blockchain technology are hackers, Sheikh said. This forces projects to stay current on their due diligence with things like robust security measures and regular smart contract audits.

There are also AI-focused concerns that have begun to gain attention in mainstream news, such as bias and legal issues surrounding intellectual property. “These are big topics in themselves and we don’t really have the space to address them adequately, but they require careful consideration,” Sheikh said.

“Blockchain and AI are both extremely powerful technologies, and together they have the potential to radically change the way we conduct our lives and work,” he surmised. “AI and blockchain can interact as part of a technological apparatus that will continue to shape the future of communication.”