Bitcoin is all over the news lately. After the meteoric rise of these financial instruments, the financial world is both excited and fearful. Excited to get in the bandwagon while it is on the rise but scarred that this could be another bubble. Even more interesting has been the rise of blockchain, the underlying technology that enables Bitcoin to run (for those wondering about what this technology is, check out this video). In this blog, I reflect on the combination between AI and blockchain by examining an emerging startup on the field. Can AI and blockchain work together? If so, what type of applications can this combination be used for?
Recently, I came across this article from Coincentral that starts answering the questions above. In it, Colin Harper interviews CEO of Deep Brain Chain, one of the first startups attempting to bring AI and blockchain technology together. DBC’s CEO He Yong puts it this way:
DBC will allow AI companies to acquire data more easily. Because a lot of data are private data. They have heavy security, such as on health and on finance. For AI companies, it’s almost next to impossible to acquire these data. The reason being, these data are easy to copy. After the data is copied, they’re easy to leak. One of DBC’s core features is trying to solve this data leakage issue, and this will help AI companies’ willingness to share data, thus reducing the cost you spend on data, to increase the flow of data in society. This will expand and really show the value of data.
As somebody who works within a large company using reams of private data, I can definitely see the potential for this combination. Blockchain can provide the privacy through encryption that could facilitate the exchange of data between private companies. Not that this does not happen already but it is certainly discouraged given the issues the CEO raises above. Certainly, the upside of aggregating this data for predictive modeling is fairly significant. Companies would have complete datasets that allow them to see sides of the customer that are not visible to that company.
However, as a citizen, such development also makes me ponder. Who will get access to this shared data? Will this be done in a transparent way so that regulators and the general population can monitor the process? Who will really benefit from this increased exchange of private data? While I agree the efficiency and cost would decrease, my main concern is for what aims will this data be used. Don’t get me wrong, targeted marketing that follows privacy guidelines can actually be beneficial to everybody. Richer data can also help a company improve customer service.
With that said, the way He Yong describes, it looks like this combination will primarily benefit large private companies that will use this data for commercial aims. Is this really the promise of an AI and Blockchain combination: allowing large companies to know even more about us?
Further in the interview, He Yong suggested the Blockchain could actually help assuage some of the fears of that AI could get out of control:
Some people claim that AI is threatening humanity. We think that blockchain can stop that, because AI is actually not that intelligent at the moment, so the threat is relatively low. But in a decade, two decades, AI will be really strong, a lot stronger than it is now. When AI is running on blockchain, on smart contracts, we can refrain AI. For example, we can write a blockchain algorithm to restrain the computational power of AI and keep it from acting on its own.
Given my limited knowledge on Blockchain, it is difficult to evaluate whether this is indeed the case. I still believe that the biggest threat of AI is not the algorithms themselves but how they are used. Blockchain, as described here, can help make them process more robust, giving human controllers more tools to halt algorithms gone haywire. Yet, beyond that I am not sure how much more can it act as a true “check and balance” for AI.
I’ll be monitoring this trend in the next few months to see how this develops. Certainly, we’ll be seeing more and more businesses emerging seeking to marry blockchain and AI. These two technologies will disrupt many industries by themselves. Combining them could be even more impactful. I am interested to see if they can be combined for human flourishing goals. That remains yet to be seen.