Blockchain and GenAI: Two Great Techs "That Taste Great Together"
Someday they will work well together, but for now, it's mostly hype.
The convergence of blockchain and AI is not just a possibility, but a potential game-changer. However, at present, it’s more hype than reality.
I am reminded of the advertisement for Reese's peanut butter cup commercials from the 1980s that claimed that chocolate and peanut butter were “two great tastes that taste great together”
It’s about the same for GenAI and Blockchain. Both are great technologies, and it’s only natural that, with AI hype at its peak, reports of the two technologies “tasting great together” would show up.
Do I believe that these technologies are synergistic? Yes I do, but both have significant inherent problems to overcome, and combining two sets of problems won’t get you the tech version of a Reese’s peanut butter cup!
👉TAKEAWAYS
Areas where AI and Blockchain (DLT) are complementary:
🔹 Data Collection: DLT can be used to protect data collected by AI.
While is’s true that DLT can protect data collected by AI, it's important to note that DLT’s storage capacity is limited. This raises questions about the types of data that should be collected and shared with an AI in the first place!
🔹 Data Storage: DLT can store data that everyone can consult, as opposed to AI’s centralized data storage.
I quite like this idea! So call me a skeptic. However, the ability to standardize AI data sets and then have them accessible by a secure means like blockchain makes sense, and there has been talk of using this tech for AI training data.
🔹 Data processing: Smart contracts can be used to process data that are open to the public, unlike AI, which processes data and is closed.
This is true, but it merely points out AI’s key problem, its answers are unexplainable. Why use a smart contract when a far simpler algorithm with deterministic answers could be used instead? Sure, smart contracts are useful, but they are overkill!
🔹 Governance of AI models: where blockchain is used to control access and selected nodes operators may approve the content.
Yes, no question that this could be done, but is blockchain the best way to carry this out? Code revisions aren’t exactly new. This seems possible, but it is reinventing the wheel.
🔹 AI can make smart contracts safer and more effective by pinpointing weaknesses in the underlying code and analyzing legal texts!
I can absolutely support AI’s use to support smart contracts, but here, the two technologies are not combined in a Reese’s cup!
👊STRAIGHT TALK👊
Blockchain and AI are technologies that will most certainly profoundly impact our world.
Is that a clear enough acknowledgment of the potential?
Still, it’s very hard to see the need for this convergence -now- when AI is still in the early stages of development.
The notion of secure data storage on DLT ledgers combined with AI’s ability to potentially process this data is compelling; there is no doubt about it.
Still, the hype surrounding the convergence of these two technologies is over the top and likely beyond the technology’s ability to deliver.
Interestingly, the paper's examples of the convergence of AI and blockchain (pg. 4, exhibit 3) show more blockchain companies that are using AI as their "secret sauce.”
That doesn’t mean that the use cases are bad, but it does make me wonder how many of these examples are designed to make feverish AI investors buy into faltering blockchain companies.
Call me a cynic!
I love both technologies and think that they, "Taste great together!”
The question is when?
Thoughts?
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