In my view, this is one of the most crucial things confronting humanity. We are nearing a crossroads, where the future of AI is going to be determined.
When it comes to technology, the spectrum ranges from a utopia to dystopia. The techno-optimists feel everything will be cured by technology. We will reach a point where society will reside in a state of utopia due to technological achievements.
The problem with this point of view is humans are still humans. Compared to 250 years ago, what we have today is magic. You would think most individuals having "magical" skills would change things. It didn't. Humans still human.
Then we have the flip side.
We have a large set of doomers. They are the people who believe Hollywood, fearing Skynet. We see their Chicken Little proclamations at every turn. They yearn for the "good ole days" which, if one takes a hard look, weren't all that good.
Today, the biggest trend is AI. It is the most powerful technology we ever saw. It is also the playing field for an enormous battle.
Crypto Firms Taking On Big Tech AI Monopoly
I will not say that AI controlled by Big Tech is dystopian. It is, however, not a preferred outcome.
If we look at the impact of social media, we can see how, in certain ways, things flourished. There is no doubt humanity is better off for this. Of course, it is not all one sided.
There are definite downsides of social media. One is the fact that platforms are siloed, controlled by single corporations that only gain in power due to their network effects.
Could we see a repeat of this with AI?
We can be excused for the outcome with social media. To be frank, we simply did not know. Few were aware of the "laws" that govern the digital realm. If we did, most of us would have made a fortune investing in these entities.
This is not the case today. We have a couple decades of how things unfold when Big Tech asserts its power. They have the capability to forge monopolies, something governments cannot even address.
Taken collectively, it puts the control in the hands of a few CEOs.
Since AI is a force multiplier, this is something that can take everything to new heights. It is also why some foresee the dystopian future.
Crypto Stepping Up
The crypto industry is overlooked for its technological abilities. Since most focus upon the finance, they miss the fact that developers have been the driving force since the start. Crypto have very little to do with money. In fact, it is nothing more than data. Granted, it now has market value, yet a token is simply the quantification of data.
For that reason, the decentralized nature of the industry can be of benefit. We see the foundation built upon open source.
The challenge is the industry looks like a bunch of cockroaches when turning on the light. Everything is scattered, with many going in different directions. It is one of the drawbacks to the decentralized, open source world.
When it comes to AI, this is being addressed.
Over 70 crypto companies are teaming up to take on Big Tech's monopoly over AI. This means that we could have the basis to move outside the control of the handful of Silicon Valley corporations.
Yuga Labs, Magic Eden, Venice.ai and more are supporting a new open-source framework so that AI agents can operate autonomously across networks.
In a move that hopes to challenge Big Tech’s grip on artificial intelligence, AI agent protocol Thinkagents.ai has launched a new open-source framework for building onchain agents that operate autonomously across decentralized networks.
If we step back, it is crucial to realize the power this might wield. The potential to usurp Big Tech certainly exists. This stems from the power of decentralized and open source. These both are force multipliers.
Of course, direction is an issue. Centralized entities are efficient in resource allocation. Meta is focused based upon where Zuckerberg wants things to head. There might be a degree of autonomy and freedom within the teams (departments), it is all within the same structure.
Crypto has defaulted to standards. ERC-20 is an example. Here is where we are looking to mirror that outcome, but with AI agents.
:Just as the ERC-20 standard enabled the tokenized economy, the Think Agent Standard introduces a modular, permissionless and composable system that allows AI agents to function as sovereign digital entities: Owning wallets, interacting with smart contracts and transacting seamlessly across every blockchain.
Applying Lessons Learned
It is vital to apply the lessons learned from decades of internet experience.
Big Tech, if left unchecked, is only going to get larger. This means more powerful. Governments are impotent against this since certain players like China will not resist the size of their network control. The is a war for global domination.
This means other countries, such as the US, have to watch their limiting of these corporations. Its companies must be able to stand up to the Chinese foes.
Of course, we have the EU and Japan, both of which want into the game.
All of this comes under the heading of centralization. Crypto taught us that decentralization offers something else the governments cannot combat. For more than a decade, it was fought. Now, we can see the point where this technology will explode, usurping the existing system.
We can do the same with AI. It is a matter of getting the standards in place and getting the focus outside the existing structures.