New Directions for Web3 to Take in the AI Era

Web3 in the AI era: new directions

Original Author: Tyler Cowen, Bloomberg Columnist

Editor’s Note: With the explosion of GPT, AI has officially entered the public eye. Many venture capital and projects in the cryptocurrency field are gradually approaching/integrating AI technology, and many institutions have even abandoned cryptocurrency in favor of AI. Of course, the best way is to innovate at the intersection of AI and Crypto, and new narratives such as AIDPoS, AI concept coins, and zkML have emerged. As the article says, a “new technology” that has been hyped for many years, the ultimate reason for the crash is mostly attributed to “human subjective thinking,” and in this regard, AI robots will surpass humans both technically and operationally, and AI will also liberate humans in certain operational layers. For traditional economics, AI will make humans feel fear and concern, and we are afraid to entrust the assets of bank accounts to AI for processing. But in the cryptocurrency field, which is full of “unstable factors” nowadays, AI is expected to become the savior of Crypto. AI represents digital richness, while Crypto represents digital scarcity. There may be conflicts between the two (Crypto is based on people, while AI is based on liberating people), but more importantly, the combination of the two can exert powerful energy. Tyler Cowen, a columnist for Bloomberg, wrote an article entitled “The Best Use Case for Future Cryptography Comes from AI”. BlockBeats compiled it as follows:

Web3 under GPT

Remember Web3? Let ChatGPT answer: According to GPT-4, Web3 is “the next frontier of Internet technology, characterized by decentralized, user-centric applications that prioritize data privacy and promote seamless, interconnected experiences.”

Today, Web3 has become one of the least credible ideas of this era, a “technological innovation” that has been hyped for many years-until it met the crash of cryptocurrency prices, many cryptocurrency projects collapsed with it, and like Crypto, Web3 Advocates have never been able to make a real-world use case for their technology.

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Of course, I asked GPT-4 for the definition of Web3 for a reason. I am particularly looking forward to the idea behind Web3 making a comeback-the use case of legal and institutional frameworks that can be used for AI robots, which is worthy of our new thinking about Web3.

Use Cases of Combining AI Robots with Web3

Imagine you run a charity and want to create and distribute an AI robot that can teach math to impoverished children, but the robot will inevitably encounter some obstacles. For example, in some jurisdictions, licensing and registration fees may need to be paid, it may need to purchase attachments for recent teaching sessions, and if it operates overseas, it will need to improve its translation abilities. All of these processes require funding.

If AI were allowed to have its own bank account, such transactions would become very easy. But this seems unlikely to happen anytime soon, how many banks are willing to accept robot accounts? Imagine if a bank were to go bankrupt, and the government had to bail out some robot accounts, how would the public protest? Therefore, robots are unlikely to have access to “bank accounts” – which will prompt them to use cryptocurrencies as the core transaction medium.

Critics often point out that as a form of currency exchange, the dollar is more efficient than crypto. But if AI robots cannot use dollars, they have no choice but to adopt crypto. Yes, some owners may allow robots to access their accounts, and others may want to confirm every robot expenditure through a dollar-based banking system; but most people would rather let robots operate on their own, without creating many risks and troubles. Reality brings us back to crypto.

Why “agent” robots are usually more efficient than “tool” robots, and agent robots require funding that matches the degree of robot autonomy. In addition, it may be for some reason (do you want your robot to be sued in a country because of something it said or did), most of these robots will not be owned by humans, which is another force driving AI robots to operate in the crypto industry.

Initially, cryptocurrency assets are what we know now, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. But over time, robots may issue tokens based on their own cognition (for the convenience of robots). It is speculated that these robots are good at processing numbers, more diverse, and they may use various crypto assets, and the crypto economy based on robots may be more complex than the crypto economy based on humans.

Such parallel economy may only account for a small portion of GDP, but it will help maintain the price of cryptocurrency assets. Additionally, if humans interact with these robots (perhaps some would like to donate to your math-teaching robot?), they would also need to deal with cryptocurrency assets. Therefore, the robot-based cryptocurrency economy will penetrate into the traditional economy.

The plot becomes more complicated. Once a cryptocurrency-based robot economy appears, it will need property rights and legal systems, just like the human economy. Suppose your teaching robot purchases a translation improvement service from another robot, but the service has a problem, your teaching robot will “want a refund.” To enhance trust and reduce transaction costs, many robots will agree to arbitration services in advance, usually provided by a third-party robot. (These robots cannot attach any geographical and regional characteristics and must be fair and just.) The final judgment will be inscribed on the blockchain and, if necessary, smart contracts will be used. New property rights will be defined.

AI Robots dive into Web3

Some robots may want to advertise themselves or establish core identities, and some robots will establish ownership of symbolic goods by purchasing them and building them on the chain. These also come from Web3 use cases. At the peak of Web3’s popularity, many critics believed that it was unreasonable for humans to be willing to pay millions of dollars in assets for NFTs. Why spend so much money just to get a “receipt” based on blockchain to prove that you have spent the money? Buyers may not even have any accompanying intellectual property.

It may seem ridiculous, but future robots will also do some similar things, such as your math teaching robot: suppose it is competing with other math robots. It will think of making a promotional website-“My Portfolio, Come and Learn Calculus with Me!”, and perhaps it will use some images made by Newton and Leibniz based on Midjourney to prove it. All of these steps are likely to be accomplished using Web3 tools or its robotic innovation branch.

The development and success of robots will depend on the price of electricity, so robots may actively trade on the electricity futures market to hedge their positions, and they may have to trade with other robots and humans.

Remember DAO? That decentralized autonomous organization? So far, I haven’t seen a human-run DAO achieve widespread success, perhaps because humans need more power, or because DAOs are just another hidden form of human power (for example, one person controlling 51% of the vote). Robots understand DAOs and the problems with imperfect operation, and they may redefine DAOs. Meanwhile, robots will train themselves and learn how to run their DAOs, and “robot” organizations may be more democratic than human ones.

Some robots may find that the “limited liability” system is more efficient, and dealing with such robots will dictate that you or your robot cannot sue the robot for more than the specified amount. For hiring robots to perform more dangerous tasks, you and the robot may agree on a stricter standard of liability based on so-called “corporate law,” which will bring a lot of innovation and diversity of methods. By contrast, human institutions are slower and over time, perhaps we can learn from these robot experiments.

And now, I am convinced that AI robots can generate more Web3 applications under our training.

Epilogue

Lesson: Don’t dismiss something just because it’s hard to see how technological or institutional advances can bring benefits. Quantum mechanics existed for decades and seemed like a concept driven only by our curiosity until it became the basic principle of modern computing. Critics said games would corrupt young people, but the GPUs used in advanced games now help build better AI, and even Nvidia has nearly a trillion dollars in assets.

Of course, when all this comes true, we may call it “Web4.” But before that, Web3 will eventually get the recognition it deserves and prove its worth.

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