What role will blockchain play in securing the future of AI-driven infrastructure?

Blockchain technology marks a pivotal moment in digital innovation

News By Calvin Ayre published 20 November 2024

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology marks a pivotal moment in digital innovation, offering unprecedented opportunities to transform industries. When combined, they can not only enhance operational efficiencies but also address some of the most pressing challenges facing modern enterprises dealing with data at scale: data reliability and integrity.

AI relies heavily on data to learn and make decisions. However, the quality of that data is paramount. In an era where misinformation and data integrity issues abound, blockchain technology offers a robust solution. By providing a decentralized ledger that ensures data is tamper-proof and immutable, blockchain can help enhance the reliability of the data fed into AI systems.

Calvin Ayre

Founder of Ayre Group.

Reducing AI hallucinations

One of the most significant challenges AI systems face is the phenomenon known as "hallucinations"—instances where AI generates responses that are inaccurate or entirely fabricated. These issues often stem from poor data quality or lack of verifiable sources, such as when AI models have gorged themselves on too much fast food data sources like forums, social media and blogs, where humor, gossip and misinformation abounds, or when they train on synthetic data produced by AI itself.

It’s like at the end of the first Matrix movie, when Neo dives into Agent Smith, who absorbs him, but then explodes. AI has to be careful what it consumes. Without quality data, Large Language Models risk “model collapse”. Here, blockchain proves invaluable.

Blockchain’s inherent properties of data integrity and immutability play a crucial role in mitigating risks associated with AI systems. By utilizing a decentralized ledger, these systems can access verified data, significantly reducing the likelihood of inaccuracies. Furthermore, unboundedly scalable blockchain technology can efficiently handle large volumes of transactions, making it well-suited to support AI tools that require real-time data. This ensures that the information used by AI is both accurate and trustworthy, ultimately enhancing the reliability of AI-driven insights and decisions.

Recognizing and rewarding creators

As AI technology continues to advance, the need to recognize and reward content creators becomes increasingly critical. Blockchain can play a role in this respect by facilitating micro-payments that reward creators directly for their contributions.

With smart contracts on a blockchain, payments can be automated and executed instantly when predefined conditions are met, ensuring creators receive fair compensation for their work. This transparency fosters a more equitable digital ecosystem, allowing artists, writers, and developers to benefit from their creations without the interference of intermediaries. This points to the potential for a brave new “creator economy 2.0” era. Similar to how the music industry was initially disrupted by piracy and file-sharing, before evolving for a new age with streaming services and monetizing live performances. So too can the creator economy evolve in this new era of AI models, by baking in financial rewards when creative content is featured in AI training data, similar to some of the early deals now starting to be struck between major media houses and AI foundational model owners.

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