Towards a More Responsible AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is experiencing an unprecedented wave of interest and adoption. This has been driven in no small part by ChatGPT’s release, along with a subsequent tide of similar, AI-powered applications. Businesses and consumers are using (and talking about) AI on an unprecedented scale. Formerly the domain of futurists and sci-fi writers, AI has firmly planted itself in the mainstream consciousness.

AI has long raised fears of a “Skynet” scenario, the “automated defense network” dreamed up by James Cameron for the Terminator franchise. Initially hailed as a new order of intelligence, Skynet’s AI-powered algorithm quickly went rogue, determined that all humans were a threat, launched a nuclear war that eliminated most of the population and subsequently enslaved the rest. Were it not for a series of ex-machina-inspired heroics from a small-but-fierce band of rebels (and Arnold, of course) that would’ve been it for the fate of humanity.

Mrinal Manohar is CEO and co-founder at Casper Labs, providing professional services to organizations building on the Casper Blockchain.

While this remains an unlikely reality, it’s far more plausible today than when the film was released nearly 40 years ago – and it’s a topic we can no longer afford to ignore. Over the past decade, generative AI systems have made remarkable progress around image recognition, reading comprehension and language understanding, to the point where they can credibly mimic, and eventually surpass, human capabilities. While most AI development to date has focused on training large language models to generate text, the rapid pace of innovation with no real oversight poses a viable concern.

AI’s potential applications, from realizing elusive medical breakthroughs to plugging acute labor shortages to more effectively combating climate change, is incredibly exciting. Reaching it, though, is contingent on providing the appropriate guardrails for a largely untested and powerful technology – a role that blockchain technology is uniquely suited to play.

Debunking a common myth around AI and blockchain

While AI currently consumes our collective hive mind, it’s worth remembering that this was the conversation happening around blockchain just several years ago. Like any breakthrough technology, this…