M A R V E L L O U S B E N
Relevance of Blockchain for Democratizing Artificial Intelligence
There exists a huge opportunity to use free computing space in the world more efficiently. According to a rough estimate, around 90% of the total 4 billion computers across the globe has a free capacity at any moment in time. This figure does not include free capacities available across other devices like smartphone and tablets. In effect, all these excess capacities are wasted and turned out to be unproductive.
Relevance of Blockchain for Democratizing Artificial Intelligence
There exists a huge opportunity to use free computing space in the world more efficiently. According to a rough estimate, around 90% of the total 4 billion computers across the globe has a free capacity at any moment in time. This figure does not include free capacities available across other devices like smartphone and tablets. In effect, all these excess capacities are wasted and turned out to be unproductive.
Sensing the opportunity, many start-ups today are exploring new and innovative ways to use this excess capacity for the various applications of the blockchain. As blockchain works on the principle of distributed ledger technology, it provides the infrastructure for idle capacity to provide support for transactions and other blockchain processes. Some of the solutions provided by the blockchain developers in this regard include data storage and web hosting. However, the more exciting area which can be specifically leveraged by the idle capacity solution is the field of artificial intelligence.
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Artificial Intelligence
Undoubtedly, artificial intelligence has caught the attention of every stakeholder in the technology development and adoption ecosystem. Many experts argue that using blockchain solutions in the area of data storage and web hosting, one can speed up wider distribution of algorithm and data which, in turn, will have a direct positive impact on the development of artificial intelligence. That said, many technology experts are apprehensive about the fact that big guns in the technology industry such as Facebook, IBM, Google have already started dominating the artificial intelligence field which could possibly lead to the monopoly of these big firms in this emerging technology area. These organizations control a major chunk of digital data which is necessary to promote the machine learning program, and there is a compelling need to democratic data if we want to have a development of artificial intelligence for the greater good of the community.
Blockchain use in Artificial Intelligence
Experts pin their hope on the blockchain technology to democratic artificial intelligence data. As the application of blockchain allows the financial transactions to happen without any middlemen, its use in artificial intelligence can help a large number of stakeholders to access the data and idle computing power without any intervening centralized authority. Efforts have already started, and many companies have established marketplaces based on the blockchain allowing for buying and selling of the data. The primary motive behind this move is to make the data available democratically, and people with impressive academic and professional credential are backing such enterprises. Kaasy and Skynet are examples of organizations involved in the sale and purchase of data. However, Hardon network seems to have taken the lead in providing solutions to the real-life problems using the concept of shared computing power. Hardon uses the marketplace it has created to get solutions regarding artificial intelligence. The network categorizes the sounds and images in a manner that can be processed for some different applications including the classification of images and face detection. People on this network bid for various tasks and applications and Hardon assign these tasks to the connected devices and pays a part of the bid which is aligned with the demand. This means if there is a high demand for computation, the prices for the bid will be higher and in case of low demand, the bid prices will be lower. This distributed model for the computing used by the Hardon offers many advantages over the traditional network; the most prominent one being is its capability to scale up computational resources. With the increase in demand, prices will rise, and that will attract more existing and new users to offer their computational capacity, thereby helping the scaling process. The network has recently announced that Aikon will launch it as the first dService which will allow the users to use its Vision API for recognizing and categorization of images.
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Prospects of Blockchain for Artificial Intelligence
The use of blockchain technology in the field of artificial intelligence has just now started, and it will take a long time for the distributed ledger to gain a strong footing in this specialized technology area. However, the most important contribution of blockchain technology in artificial intelligence is to make data available to all the stakeholders without any kind of centralized and corporate control. This means all the benefits and advantages of artificial intelligence can be shared democratically without any undue interference or domination of a few big companies.
Blockchain Technology and Artificial Intelligence are Two Different Things
If you search for the definition of blockchain and artificial intelligence on the internet, the chances are high that Google throws back results which are not similar in their description. And that’s because these technological innovations are indeed different from each other and should be taken in their specific contexts. It will be a mistake on our part to club them together although one can always argue that technical excellence and competence remain at the heart of both these technologies.
If we take a look at any of the initial coin offerings (ICOs) floated between 2017 and 2018, one thing becomes very much apparent is the way the companies promote the blockchain and artificial intelligence in an integrated manner. The promotion brags ICOs as some kind of miraculous project marrying artificial intelligence with blockchain for providing a one-stop solution for all business needs of clients. Some companies have gone one step further and projected images of robots, astronauts, and other fine prints related to artificial intelligence on their offerings.
Different Domain Areas
It is sad to witness the obsession of many organizations to club together artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. Artificial intelligence is a term which is used to encompass a wide variety of technological innovations which are aimed to make computers work in a smart manner. It will include all the tools and technologies that will help to enhance efficiency while effectively contributing to achieving objectives of the organization. Blockchain technology, on the other hand, is a term related to cryptocurrency and open ledger technique, primarily dealing in the domain of financial technology firms. Of late, the blockchain has entered into many fields including the supply chain, distribution management, energy, and power distribution, agro-export business, etc., although the technology is more known in the domain of financial transactions. The adoption of blockchain makes the transactions more safe and secure, in addition to saving cost and time and this is the primary benefit associated with this open ledger technology. Chances of having any kind of fraud are greatly reduced by blockchain adoption, and although it makes things more efficient, it is not necessarily aiming to make computers and equipment smarter like artificial intelligence.
Converging Areas
The question of whether blockchain technology and artificial intelligence will ever come together in a manner that is being wrongly touted by many organizations today remains a contentious issue of debate. There is a strong possibility of these technologies merging together for some kind of for interface or application but for that to happen; we require close coordination between these advancements in terms of conceptual integration, technological advances, synching of objectives, and unanimity towards achieving a common end-goal. Regulation in both of these emerging areas of technology is also going to play an important part. In an ideal situation, regulatory bodies and governments must come up with a legislative framework for cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence and implement it in a manner that should encourage both of these industries to grow in a desirable manner. The regulatory framework should not be too harsh else it will dampen the innovative spirit, but at the same time, it should be effective enough to discourage any mala fide intent to cheat or pulling a fast one on the intended users. In fact, in the case of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, we have witnessed a growth in some countries which have a proper crypto framework in place than the places where the regulations are loosely defined, giving a window of opportunity for fraudsters to deceive investors. The concerns related to regulating artificial intelligence is still in the nascent stage and need to be worked upon to arrive at a common ground of understanding.
Technological experts and influencers feel that the possible area of amalgamation where blockchain and artificial intelligence come together could be an example of a robot scanning chips embedded in human bodies to confirm the transactions done by them on their private blockchain. Of course, arriving at such a scenario will take some time though going by the breakneck speed of technological revolutions, it can be safely assumed that we will witness such scenes at airports or banks sooner than we can actually imagine.
