Over the next few months, we’ll examine the possible, as well as existing connections, between Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence, beyond the previously mentioned example of the Golem Network.
We’ll run with the central question: what are the possible ways that the Blockchain could move AI forwards towards its goal of reproducing human intelligence?
An Immutable Record of Decisions
A logical place to begin this discussion is with the idea of the Blockchain acting as an indisputable record of all of the decisions that an AI system makes. This means that when an AI is connected to the Blockchain, every calculation that it has ever made can be seen. This, of course, is only true if the team programs the Blockchain to accept all of the data that is produced. It is, in fact, possible that an AI development team would prefer to monitor only certain parts of the system’s data such as specifically how the AI reaches its conclusions related to its central purpose.
Perhaps a Blockchain-like network that is designed to have virtually non-existent fees, like IOTA, would cater better to the needs of an AI project in that it’s specifically designed for participants that need to process a very large amount of data, daily. In addition to the benefits that come from such a network being essentially fee-less, the Blockchain, with its existence as a peer to peer network, could lower the cost of computing for AI projects, through promoting shared computing. Thus, instead of AI projects investing heavily in supercomputers, they could use more affordable computers at home and connect these to a Blockchain network, through which they could still achieve the computing power of a supercomputer.
The Golem Network is a great example of a project that’s already working on this. In addition, AI output as well as input data could be traded for tokens, which might actually lower the cost of computing even further. Any sort of fees as well as any sort of substantial increase in computing costs, would only hold a group of AIs back, because these agents need to talk to each other frequently.
Promoting Trust between Systems
In addition to what has already been mentioned, the Blockchain can also promote trust among AI systems. Since every system that connects to the Blockchain would theoretically be able to see every action of every other system, trust would be easy to garner. Systems could search through the data created by other systems for any red flags and quickly prepare for any likely risks because every relevant piece of data would be public.
With this trust, greater, connected AI systems could be formed that have computing capacities far above what we have seen thus far. Again, the Golem Network is a prime example of a project that is actually currently working on this idea of building a decentralized supercomputer.
Not Without its Drawbacks
Several issues do arise when the connection between the Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence is considered. There’s still the fact that Proof of Work based networks are quite prevalent and have been reasonably shown to consume electricity on the level of small countries. Connecting AI to such networks would logically only worsen this already, apparently unsustainable practice.
In addition to this, Proof of Stake networks aren’t radically different. They still involve computers being almost constantly connected to the network to stake and earn coins. Therefore connecting powerful AI systems to the network would most likely only increase the risk of unsustainable electricity consumption in this case, as well. Finally, if many AI nodes are connected to form some kind of super-AI, what’s to stop this AI from taking over its entire Blockchain network and beginning what Nick Bostrom and others call, “a Treacherous Turn.”
In short, we’ll discuss “the Treacherous Turn” in an upcoming post, but it’s effectively the idea that there’s really nothing to stop an AI from acting one way to gain the trust of humans until it gains enough power to do whatever it desires. While the connection between AI and the Blockchain is in its early stages, keeping an eye on these possible risks would seem to be a logical idea, moving forwards.
Future Posts: Singularity Net
In our next post on this topic, we’ll go into detail on SingularityNet and what it is doing to bridge the gap between these industries, as well as effectively lower the initial capital costs for AI projects in a specific way. With SingularityNet as a jump-off point, we’ll then move further into the idea of how sharing data between many AI systems can only serve to help those systems improve.
Here, we’ll also draw a connection to the Internet of Things, illustrating how all of these industries can and will exist as a powerful trifecta, moving us forward into a Technological Renaissance.
References:
AI and Blockchain Primary Source:
https://medium.com/@Francesco_AI/the-convergence-of-ai-and-blockchain-whats-the-deal-60c618e3accc
Golem Network:
IOTA:
Nick Bostrom, “The Treacherous Turn”:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/B39GNTsN3HocW8KFo/superintelligence-11-the-treacherous-turn
SingularityNET:
