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When discussing the future, two camps often emerge: optimists, who see each innovation as a promise of better days, and pessimists, who fear each new technology is another step towards a dystopian future. I firmly belong to the first camp, not out of naivety, but due to a deep conviction: history shows that when humanity embraces its creative and collaborative potential, the results are often extraordinary. With this spirit, I approach the topic of this article: the revolutionary convergence of artificial intelligence and blockchain.
Generative AI, which creates, learns, and evolves, is already an integral part of our daily lives. From virtual assistants like ChatGPT to open-source systems like Meta’s LLaMA, these technologies shape our interaction with the digital world. However, one question remains: how can we ensure these advancements benefit everyone and reflect our societal values?
Enter blockchain, bringing principles of decentralization, transparency, and security. Imagine a world where AI is not only powerful and intuitive but also democratically managed, with its learning and evolution tracked transparently and securely. This is not science fiction, but a tangible possibility we are just beginning to explore.
In this article, I will demystify these complex concepts and explain why their convergence could be one of the greatest advancements of our time. Join me on this journey to discover a future where, I firmly believe, we have the power to realize our boldest aspirations.
When discussing the future, two camps often emerge: optimists, who see each innovation as a promise of better days, and pessimists, who fear each new technology is another step towards a dystopian future. I firmly belong to the first camp, not out of naivety, but due to a deep conviction: history shows that when humanity embraces its creative and collaborative potential, the results are often extraordinary. With this spirit, I approach the topic of this article: the revolutionary convergence of artificial intelligence and blockchain.
Generative AI, which creates, learns, and evolves, is already an integral part of our daily lives. From virtual assistants like ChatGPT to open-source systems like Meta’s LLaMA, these technologies shape our interaction with the digital world. However, one question remains: how can we ensure these advancements benefit everyone and reflect our societal values?
Enter blockchain, bringing principles of decentralization, transparency, and security. Imagine a world where AI is not only powerful and intuitive but also democratically managed, with its learning and evolution tracked transparently and securely. This is not science fiction, but a tangible possibility we are just beginning to explore.
In this article, I will demystify these complex concepts and explain why their convergence could be one of the greatest advancements of our time. Join me on this journey to discover a future where, I firmly believe, we have the power to realize our boldest aspirations.
Let’s start our technological adventure by unraveling the mysteries of generative artificial intelligence. Imagine a virtual artist, storyteller, or composer capable of creating stories, images, and even music from nothing. It’s like having a creative genius in a box, except this genius is a computer program.
GenAI: What is it?
Generative AI (or GAI) is like a digital brain that learns by observing the world and listening to conversations. It can understand what you tell it and then uses what it has learned to create something new and unique. Think of OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Meta’s Llama — they can talk to you, answer your questions, and even invent stories because they’ve learned from tons of texts and conversations.
How does this digital magic work?
These GAIs are like digital sponges. They absorb an incredible amount of information — books, articles, websites — and use all this data to understand how to speak, write, and even think. It’s akin to learning a language by reading every book in a library.
Algorithmic bias: A significant challenge
In the world of AI, not everything is perfect. One of the big concerns is “algorithmic biases.” Essentially, if AI learns from biased data (like discriminatory texts or stereotyped images), it will reproduce these biases in its creations. It’s like a child unknowingly learning bad manners. Therefore, monitoring what AI learns is crucial to prevent the spread of prejudice or misinformation. But who decides what data is biased or not?
Fine-tuning: educating AI post-training
Then there’s “fine-tuning,” akin to AI’s continuous education. After AI learns from a huge amount of data, developers can refine it for specific tasks or to make it more accurate. It’s like giving AI private lessons to learn to do certain things better or to correct mistakes it might have learned during its initial training. This process is essential for quality AI, but who decides its education, its political or moral direction?
The impact of generative AI in our lives
This type of AI isn’t limited to chatting or writing texts. Its implications are vast, such as:
- In healthcare: It can help discover new drugs by analyzing millions of scientific data.
- For businesses: It optimizes processes, responds to customers, and even aids in decision-making.
- In artistic creation: It can compose music, create artworks, or write scripts.
Closed AI vs. open-source AI: A matter of freedom
In the AI universe, there are “closed” versions like OpenAI’s ChatGPT (not so open since Microsoft’s billion-dollar investment in this pseudo non-profit initiative) and “open-source” versions, free and accessible to everyone, like Meta’s Llama. The difference? It’s like having the recipe for a delicious cake: either it’s kept secret, or it’s shared so everyone can cook and improve it.
Imagine the world of tomorrow, in 10, 20 years, where we all use generative AIs for all sorts of tasks. Would you prefer to know that the data of these AIs are open to everyone, or that these AIs are closed and controlled by a small group of people who would decide how these systems (and therefore you!) should think?
The current greatest risk is not that these AIs become “conscious” and take over, but knowing who controls these AIs. I highly recommend the excellent debate between Yann LeCun (CTO of Meta) and Brad Smith (VP of Microsoft) on the topic of an open and democratic AI:
AGI: The future of AI
AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence, is the next level. Imagine an AI not only capable of doing many different things but also of learning and understanding them like a human. It’s the ultimate dream of AI technology: a system that could think, learn, and act autonomously in almost any field.
Towards singularity and alignment
- The technological singularity: It’s the idea of a future where AI becomes so advanced that it can improve itself and thus completely transform our world. It’s both exciting and terrifying because such misaligned AI could cause very serious problems, with some even thinking of human enslavement or extinction, like the Skynet of Terminator!
- AI alignment: It’s the challenge of ensuring that these super-intelligent AIs understand and respect our human values and goals. It’s like raising a prodigy child who must learn to use their talents wisely.
By better understanding generative AI, we begin to see its enormous potential and the way it could transform our future. It’s a fascinating field, full of possibilities, that deserves our close attention.
After delving into the world of generative AI, let’s turn to another exciting and often misunderstood topic: blockchain. Forget for a moment the images of cryptocurrencies and complicated transactions. Instead, think of the blockchain as a giant digital ledger, where each page tells the story of exchanges and agreements, accessible and verifiable by all.
Blockchain: What exactly is it?
Imagine a huge notebook that everyone can read, but in which no one can erase or modify a page once it’s written. Each new page (or “block”) contains information about exchanges or transactions, and once it’s complete, it’s sealed and attached to the previous page. Thus, they form a long chain of pages, hence the name “blockchain.”
The big ideas behind Blockchain
- No Boss: Instead of being stored on a big central computer, this chain of pages is spread across thousands of computers worldwide. No one “owns” the blockchain, much like a guest book in a public library.
- Open to All: Everyone can take a peek into this notebook and verify what’s written. Everything is transparent and open. Super Secure: Thanks to complicated encryption techniques (like sophisticated digital locks), it’s extremely difficult to cheat or alter what’s been written.
When Blockchain meets real life
The magic of blockchain isn’t limited to cryptocurrency exchanges. It can transform many things in our daily lives:
- Voting with confidence: Imagine elections where every vote is indelibly and transparently recorded.
- Simplified home buying: No more endless paperwork to prove who owns what.
- Safer medications: Precise tracking of medications, from their creation to their arrival at the pharmacy.
- Authentic products: No more counterfeits, thanks to transparent tracking from production to delivery.
What if we mixed AI and Blockchain?
It gets really exciting when we combine AI and blockchain. Imagine an AI that can read and understand this immense chain of pages to help us make intelligent decisions, all while being monitored by the transparency and security of the blockchain. This could mean major advancements in fields like finance, health, and many others.
Now, let’s get to the heart of the matter: why AI and blockchain are like two pieces of a giant puzzle of innovation. It’s like two superheroes deciding to combine their forces!
Why this super alliance?
- A powerful duo: Imagine AI as a super-fast brain and blockchain as an infallible memory. Together, they form a dream team: AI analyzes and creates, while blockchain ensures everything is secure and transparent.
- Stronger together: AI can be super intelligent, but it needs reliable data. Blockchain is like a guardian that ensures AI’s data are neither tampered with nor manipulated.
- Technological democracy: With blockchain, we avoid AI being the toy of a few large companies. It’s like giving control of this super-powerful intelligence to everyone, not just an elite.
The potential of this magical union
- Total transparency: Thanks to blockchain, we can track every decision of the AI like footprints in the sand. It’s reassuring because we know where the decisions come from and how they are made.
- The economy of the future: Imagine a world where everyone can contribute to AI and be rewarded for it, much like in a video game where each player earns points for their participation.
- Innovations everywhere: This combination could transform everything, from finance to medicine, to education. It’s as if each sector received a technological superpower.
A huge impact on society and economy
- Technology closer to us: By integrating blockchain, AI becomes like a trusted friend who always acts in our interest, transparently.
- Power to the people: This alliance gives us control over our own data and how AI is used. It’s like taking back the reins of technology.
- Towards a fairer future: By making access to AI more equitable, we ensure that the future is not just bright for a few, but for everyone.
Selecting data with blockchain: a new era of transparency
Blockchain can revolutionize how we choose data to train our AIs. Using its transparent and immutable nature, we can create a system where each dataset is recorded, verified, and validated. This means AI developers, researchers, and even the general public could track the origin, nature, and quality of the data used for training.
Infallible traceability for AI fine-tuning
Fine-tuning is a key step in AI development, where the model is adjusted for optimal performance. Here, blockchain can play a crucial role by recording every modification, choice, and data source used in this process. This offers total transparency, allowing us to understand how and why the AI evolved in a particular way.
Multiple benefits of this approach
- Increased trust: By documenting every step of the AI development process, blockchain strengthens public and professional users’ trust in generative AIs.
- Bias reduction: With clear traceability, it is easier to identify and correct potential biases in datasets.
- Improved governance: This method allows for democratic governance of AI, where decisions about data and adjustments can be made transparently and informed.
The union of AI and blockchain is like building a bridge between two technological worlds.
It’s not just a geeky advancement; it’s an open door to a future where technology works with and for us, creating a fairer, safer, and more transparent world. So, are you ready for this extraordinary adventure?
We’ve reached the end of our first journey into the fascinating world of AI and blockchain. This was not just a technological trip but an exploration of how these technologies could shape our future. The essence of our adventure Generative AI: We’ve discovered a universe where machines don’t just calculate or analyze, but create, imagine, and innovate. Like digital artists, they open up unprecedented horizons. Blockchain, more than just currency: Blockchain is like an open ledger, ensuring security, transparency, and fairness. It’s not just the backbone of cryptocurrencies but a pillar for reliable and democratic technology. Their alliance, an evolution: When these two giants meet, it’s not just a fusion of skills; it’s the birth of a new technological era. A world where AI is our ally, overseen by the incorruptible vigilance of the blockchain.
What the future holds for us
Imagine a future where technology is not a distant force but a trusted partner in our daily lives. A world where we, as individuals, have a role in shaping and governing AI, thanks to the democratic power of blockchain. This isn’t just a story about technology; it’s a story about us — how we interact with the world, how we solve problems, and how we envision the future. AI and blockchain are not just tools; they are the builders of our future. And this future is ours to create. So, let’s stay curious, open-minded, and ready to embrace these changes. The upcoming articles in this series will delve deeper into each aspect of this revolutionary alliance. Together, let’s discover how this synergy can enrich our lives, transform our societies, and help us build a future where technology works hand in hand with humanity.
[Article written on October 26, 2023, by Gaspard Tertrais with the support of the Open AI GPT-4 algorithm for approximately 20%. Images created with DALL.E-3, 2023]
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