AI and Blockchain Intersection: Experts Discuss Future Prospects at Cornell Conference
Summary:
At the recent Cornell Blockchain Conference, experts, including Microsoft’s director for digital transformation, Yorke Rhodes, discussed the intersection of Artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology. The panel focused on the evolution, challenges, and potential regulation of blockchain and AI. They also explored Microsoft's potential to have its own blockchain, with Rhodes downplaying such a possibility. Moreover, they discussed the advancement of AI in the form of smaller, more efficient models that could soon operate on phones and laptops. The panelists expressed their visions for the future of AI, with some predicting the realization of artificial generalized intelligence within ten years.
Microsoft is fully convinced that Artificial intelligence (AI) represents "the technology that defines our era," leading the charge in AI research and investments. This doesn't imply, however, that the tech behemoth headquartered in Seattle is oblivious to cryptocurrencies, including the potential collaboration between blockchain technology and AI. At the recently held Cornell Blockchain Conference in New York, a question was put to Yorke Rhodes, the director for digital transformation, blockchain, and cloud supply chain at Microsoft about his views on the future convergence of these technologies. “The two technical fields are evolving in such a manner that agents capable of harnessing the power of both can be created. However, we're still at the advent of this development," he explained.
During a panel debate, Alex Lin, Reforge's co-founder and general partner, further explored Rhodes' perspective by asking if Microsoft plans to develop its own blockchain in the future. Rhodes responded by highlighting the already significant advancements in crypto, particularly in the open-source community, questioning the need for Microsoft to reinvent the wheel. Rather, he explained, the company's current focus is more on enhancing existing technologies like the layer-2 blockchain rollups. In addressing the possibility of Microsoft building an L1 blockchain, he shared, “I highly doubt it.”
The event, held on April 26 at Cornell Tech, saw the participation of Rhodes and Lin along with Neil DeSilva, CFO of PayPal Digital Currencies; Matt Stephenson, the Head of Research at Pantera; and Hyperbolic Labs' CEO and Co-founder, Jasper Zhang.
Stephenson expressed his confidence that “crypto is in a prime position to serve as the ‘infrastructure’ for certain types of AI,” in particular, transformer and diffusion models. Meanwhile, Rhodes stated that AI's vast popularity often overshadows other emerging technologies, including crypto/blockchain and Web3.
AI results garnered from a centralized network can be obtained quite quickly nowadays. Yet, Lin suggested that due to “latency,” decentralized networks may not provide results as promptly. Zhang disagreed, however, suggesting that such networks, like blockchains, can handle "inference" tasks efficiently.
In the field of AI, discussions are often centered on large language models that require an enormous amount of computing power. Nonetheless, Rhodes suggested the emergence of smaller and more efficient AI models suitable for smaller platforms such as phones and laptops.
Regulation of AI is an issue governments worldwide will inevitably face, much like they did with cryptocurrencies. DeSilva optimistically noted that while dealing with regulations can sometimes be frustrating, they essentially protect consumers, which is crucial. However, if transparency, immutability, and tracking capabilities offered by blockchain technology can be implemented, this could lessen the regulator's burden.
In conclusion, panelists shared their visions on the future of AI. Zhang, for instance, prophesied the realization of artificial generalized intelligence (AGI) in five to ten years. At the same time, Rhodes predicted the retirement of zero-knowledge proofs in favor of fully homomorphic encryption. DeSilva optimistically pointed out that while many forecasts had failed over the years, the positive outlook often prevails.
Published At
5/16/2024 4:42:00 PM
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