Ouke Cloud Chain Research Institute’s Outlook for 2024: Web3 and AI resonate to detonate a trusted digital society

The integration of AI and Web3 will become the twin engines of the trusted digital era, unleashing everyone’s unlimited potential.

Written by: Bi Lianghuan, Chief Researcher of Ouke Cloud Chain Research Institute

“AI is about to completely change the way you use computers and subvert the software industry.” In an article last November, Bill Gates attracted widespread attention with such a title.

This reminds me of a few years ago, when blockchain technology first began to be widely discussed, people often used the word “disruption” to describe the potential of this technology. Looking back on the past few years, blockchain technology has gradually developed from the original ecological innovations ERC20, zero-knowledge proof, and BRC20 to DeFi and DePIN that are integrated with other fields.

If the two are combined, will there be an effect of 1+1 greater than 2?

Early last year we proposed that super apps would be the key to mass adoption. This year, the focus of Ouke Cloud Chain Research Institute is the technological integration of AI and Web3. With the support of a compliance environment, it is expected to change the current user behavior habits of Web3, accelerate large-scale adoption, and jointly build a trusted digital society.

The integration of graph AI and Web3 technology can help solve technical and application problems

Scalable trust, the foundation of a trusted digital society

In an online society full of false news, Web3 has been expected to evolve into a new value platform ecosystem that will change the information platform of Web2. Imagine a platform where the flow of information is no longer subject to the threat of misinformation and tampering. Economic activities become more fair and transparent on this value network platform. On-chain data enables every transaction to clearly show the value chain behind it, making value circulation no longer a black box.

However, this development is constrained by the relationship between decentralization, security and scalability, forming an impossible triangle. Without scalability, it will be difficult to build this new value platform. However, the introduction of AI is expected to help break this impossible triangle and promote Web3 to build a scalable and trusted digital society.

From the perspective of scalability, the current Web3 ecosystem includes hundreds of blockchains, second-layer networks, and application chains. However, due to the lack of local communication capabilities of the blockchain itself with external systems, many “information islands” have been formed. ”. Technologies such as cross-chain bridges, atomic swaps, relay chains, and side chains have been proposed as solutions. However, these solutions are not easily accessible to a wide range of users. By introducing intelligent agents with autonomous decision-making and execution capabilities, that is, AI Agents, they simulate and play human roles, and can choose cross-chain solutions that best suit user needs, break the “information islands” between different blockchains, and provide Provide users with a better cross-chain experience.

From a security perspective, AI can help improve the security of Web3 systems. Through real-time monitoring and analysis, AI can promptly discover and respond to potential security threats, thereby effectively protecting users’ assets and privacy. In addition to using AI as an efficiency tool such as accelerating efficiency in auditing code and using AI to enhance security review and improve efficiency when writing code, the blockchain large-scale language model proposed by Berkeley RDI is a new direction that has received widespread attention from the academic community. It aims to provide an unlimited search space that is not restricted by predefined rules or patterns, enabling direct detection of a wider range of anomalies.

Picture: Product design schematic diagram of the blockchain large language model; Source: Berkeley RDI

Technology integration gives AI trust

If we want to build a trustworthy digital society, Web3 with scalability and security alone is not enough. What if AI itself does something bad? A survey sponsored by Ernst & Young showed that 90% of the companies surveyed are still in the early stages of artificial intelligence maturity, while only 4% have reached the most advanced stage. Low trust and concerns about the potential risks of AI have emerged as one of the major barriers to accelerating AI adoption.

Low trust mainly comes from two aspects. One is that the information for training AI is wrong, and the other is that the information for training AI is centralized and can be manipulated. However, Web3 technology is also very helpful in improving the trust of AI. Great benefits:

Web3 technology can help us fight against AI misinformation with the notarization function of blockchain. For example, content developers can ensure that each piece of content is unique by hashing articles or videos (Note 1), which is similar to creating a digital fingerprint. The digital fingerprint is then recorded on the blockchain and signed using the public key, ensuring the authenticity and integrity of the content.

The integration of AI and Web3 is expected to provide new ways to improve privacy and data ownership. It provides decentralized data storage and management through blockchain technology, giving users control and visibility of data, and providing an alternative to large-scale cloud development. , reducing the monopoly of centralized cloud service providers. In the future, it can be seen that some centralized cloud service providers may choose to cooperate with the Web3 ecosystem to integrate new technologies and services.

Once the fundamental technical limitations are improved through the technical integration of Web3 and AI, the foundation for building a trustworthy digital society will be gained. Web3 with scalability will empower individuals. Around the individual economy, the application layer of Web3 and AI will present unlimited potential. In this new ecosystem, individuals can directly participate in economic activities and have more rights to control their own data and assets. Everyone can participate in innovative business models through AI-assisted smart contracts, digital identity and other technologies to achieve a more just and transparent economic system. This nascent economic model will promote the development of creativity and individuality, and bring more opportunities and justice to society.

Figure: Multi-layer structure of multi-chain Web3

Let Web3 return to “people-oriented”

The user experience of Web3 and the user experience of AI are completely different. The large-scale language models built by GenAI exploded in front of the public, such as ChatGPT, which attracted its first million users in just 5 days. However, for Web3, despite a range of professional and leading products and platforms on the market, there are still relatively few adopters. Although the compliance push in 2023 has increased institutional recognition, it has not yet exploded on the user side as quickly as ChatGPT.

User experience is one of the main reasons for the difference in the adoption rate of Web3 and AI on the user side. Compared with the operation of “users only need to enter a dialogue to use it”, understanding Web3 wallets and being familiar with addresses, keys, etc. that are different from bank card numbers makes Web3 still face challenges in terms of interaction, speed and ease of use. However, the emergence of AI can effectively improve this user experience, learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses with Web3, and even become one of the main users of Web3.

By introducing AI Agent in the application layer, the tedious processes can be handed over to the AI Agent to design in the background, and displayed and interacted in the front-end in a way that is familiar to users. For example, some aspects that are different from traditional finance or Web2 are simplified in terms of timeliness: using digital signatures for cryptographic proof, generating signatures through the creator’s known private key, and using public public keys for verification.

By introducing AI Agents, the threshold of Web3 has been lowered, making Web3 return to “people-oriented” again, allowing the application experience of Web2 to continue, even through the addition of AI, just as Bill Gates said, it will subvert the software industry and change human usage. habits and lifestyle.

In the future, users may only need a precise question or instruction when using DApp.

Figure: Flowchart of AI Agent

Individuals are also teams, AI and Web3 work together to unleash human creativity

In addition to increasing the ease of use of DApps and lowering the barriers to use for ordinary users, GenAI technology is another driver for the large-scale adoption of Web3 on the user side. From the original Vincent diagram Midjourney to today’s generated videos Runaway and PIKA, GenAI provides users with a fast and low-cost way to realize their imagination. In the previous fields such as Metaverse and GameFi, the biggest problem encountered during product development was not the code, but involved aspects such as art, game design, and character setting.

The integration of GenAI technology and Web3 technology will greatly speed up the Metaverse. Web3 provides different rewards, especially for character relationships in the game, allowing the game to connect with the outside world, improve operating efficiency, and form its own economic system. AI provides the Metaverse with the speed and diversity of virtual creation and content generation. In addition to images, videos, and audio, users can use GenAI to create intelligent NPCs and virtual characters, making the interactivity and immersion of the Metaverse more realistic. For games (GameFi), the generation and design of game content can use Gen AI technology, allowing developers to create game props, scenes and characters more quickly and provide personalized game experiences. These applications make areas such as Metaverse and GameFi more creative and attractive.

All of these can make one person work as a team, and the integration of two technologies can liberate human energy on “how to do it”, thereby releasing human creativity. In the future, the deep integration of Web3 and AI will lead to a more intelligent and innovative digital society. Individuals will become creators and artists, and Web3 gives individuals more power. Individuals do not need a large team, and their creativity can burst out freely. This will usher in a golden age of global creativity. Everyone can shape their own Metaverse. This future is not only about technology, but also a milestone for mankind to redefine creation, sharing and connection.

We look forward to a future where trust issues will be gradually resolved, user experience will be more friendly, and individuals will be given more power and efficiency tools. Just imagine this digital world that will redefine the way we live. In 2024, the integration of AI and Web3 will surely become the twin engines of the trusted digital era, unleashing everyone’s unlimited potential.

*Note 1: Hashing is an algorithm that converts data of any length into a fixed-length string. A hash function maps input data to a fixed-length hash value, which is usually unique and different inputs will produce different hash values. This conversion process is one-way, that is, the original input data cannot be restored from the hash value. *