According to the records shared by Kaito AI research partner Sandra, Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase and former general partner of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, delivered a thought-provoking speech at an artificial intelligence conference in Singapore, elaborating on the relationship and future potential between cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence (AI). He provided a simple and concise framework that revealed how these two multibillion-dollar technologies complement each other and shape the future.
Cryptocurrency and AI are relative in many aspects. For instance, the rise of AI is a top-down process, originating from renowned research laboratories and eventually promoted by institutions like OpenAI. On the other hand, the rise of cryptocurrency is a bottom-up process, initially obscure in reputation. Despite this, both are equally important large-scale technologies, but their rise patterns differ significantly.
Furthermore, modern AI is primarily based on statistics and is probabilistic, while cryptocurrency is programmatic and deterministic. Diffusion models and large language models (LLMs) essentially start with probabilistic models, while cryptocurrency demonstrates determinism through processes like verifying digital signatures.
However, this does not mean that these two technologies are contradictory. Balaji Srinivasan believes that, in fact, the two technologies can complement each other perfectly. For example, AI represents digital abundance, making things easy to counterfeit, while cryptocurrency represents digital scarcity, making counterfeiting difficult. AI generates content, while cryptocurrency authenticates content.
By linking digital content (whether it be articles, images, certificates, or other information) to blockchain transactions, a clear and trustworthy record of content origin, authenticity, and any subsequent interactions can be established. Essentially, while artificial intelligence can “preach” through widespread dissemination of messages, cryptocurrency can verify these messages and ensure their credibility and authenticity.
Furthermore, AI model training is a highly centralized task, requiring massive computational resources. Cryptocurrency, on the other hand, showcases the ability to mobilize a large amount of capital through crowdfunding (by gathering resources in a decentralized manner). Many of the largest crowdfunding activities in the market are cryptocurrency projects, although the current applications are still very inefficient. However, breakthroughs are expected in this field.
In conclusion, Balaji Srinivasan stated that the future holds a symbiotic relationship between cryptocurrency and AI, where both technologies will play crucial roles in shaping the digital landscape.