Vitalik Buterin Categorizes 4 Integrate Crypto with AI

In his latest blog post, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has elucidated four strategies for intertwining cryptocurrency with artificial intelligence (AI), concurrently presenting illustrative examples of potential applications and associated risks.

Buterin contends that “AI” is a highly expansive concept, viewing it as a collection of algorithms that are not merely directed to operate on demand but necessitate a fusion of computational processes and specific pressures to enable autonomous development aligned with the builders’ intentions.

There exist multiple avenues for utilizing AI to attain the aforementioned objectives, and they can be categorized into four primary types:

1. AI as an Agent in a Protocol: Engaging in mechanisms where their developmental impetus originates from human input.

2. AI as the Foundation of the Protocol: Assisting users in comprehending the cryptocurrency landscape and ensuring that messages and transactions are appropriately verified, thereby enhancing security against fraudulent activities.

3. AI Generating Protocol Rules (requires prudent development): Applicable to blockchain, DAO, and analogous mechanisms.

4. AI Becoming the Objective of the Protocol (long-term development, substantial potential): Capable of autonomously designing blockchains, DAOs, and similar mechanisms, utilizing AI for diverse purposes, including leveraging cryptocurrencies to bolster network development. Concurrently, this involves integrating features to prevent AI from leaking personal data or being subject to misuse.

Related: Vitalik Buterin’s Advice for Investors

Risks and Challenges in the Intersection of AI and Crypto

Within the four classifications, the Ethereum progenitor highly advocates for the feasibility of employing “AI as an agent in the protocol,” concurrently acknowledging that using “AI as the foundation of the protocol” holds significant potential but also carries inherent high risks.

In general, fundamental applications are still designed similarly to before, but AI agents enable mechanisms to operate more efficiently on a broader scale. This is the most promising and readily achievable scenario at the current moment.

Buterin notes the sole challenge in merging cryptocurrency with AI is the endeavor to develop a single, reliable, decentralized AI that other applications can depend on.

These applications hold promise in terms of functionality and enhancing the safety of AI by avoiding centralization risks associated with more conventional approaches to that problem. However, there are also many ways in which fundamental assumptions can fail; therefore, caution is necessary when deploying these applications, especially in high-value and high-risk contexts.

In the article’s conclusion, Buterin anticipates seeing more applications in the future utilizing AI in all four outlined areas to discover the optimal integration of crypto and AI on a large scale.

Recent times, particularly the late 2023 and early 2024 period, have witnessed numerous posts and proposals from Ethereum’s co-founder. Earlier, Vitalik Buterin suggested raising the gas fee limit on Ethereum by 33%, following proposals to address current shortcomings of the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism and concurrently unveiling the 2024 roadmap for Ethereum.