Green says he believes the combination will lead to breakthroughs in both fields. He cites the example of how Bitcoin has enabled financial transactions without a central authority or middleman like banks.
What's more, the fact that all the data is public can be interpreted by computer algorithms and can be transferred anonymously through the internet already allows for many financial applications that weren't possible before such as trading financial derivatives or insurance.
Although the combination of the two sounds revolutionary it might still be at least several years before we see anything practical come out of this research. The early adopters and the testing that needs to be done, especially on how the two technologies interact with each other, for example how a decentralized system can enforce a set of rules on a network that can be interpreted by a blockchain, is going to take some time. However, the technology race between the US and China isn't over just because they've created a working ant-arctic base.
The other countries that have been extremely active in AI research like Israel, China and even a few western countries like the UK are going to continue pushing forward with their research, and as the US and China are already ahead in research and development because of their large budget allocations to the field, it's only going to get harder for them to stay one step ahead.
Especially considering how the two countries are already having a trade war. As a result of this technological arms race, powerful players are inevitably going to get involved in this cutting edge technology. Rumors already around that the East Asian countries are already in contact with each other to share their research. Of course, the other rumor is that a multi-national company like Microsoft or IBM is just going to buy up all the leading AI research institutions and companies and become the new internet.
In any case, you can see why the military is so interested in this technology. The US Air Force is already training drone pilots and other personnel to fly in these conditions. The Army is also interested in autonomous weapons systems that can make independent decisions. Does this all sound a bit…HUMAN?
Fortunately, the military isn't the only one interested in this cutting edge technology. There are already companies that have started to adapt this for regular consumers, such as Amazon with their experimental "Fire" service that uses this technology to make the in-house delivery service faster and more efficient. Companies like DeepMind are already working on using these types of technologies for the "healthcare" industry.
So if you're interested in this field, your career choice has never been more wide open. With advances in this field coming so fast and furious, you never know where it's all going to lead.
Now going back to how artificial intelligence and blockchains work together, here are some use cases of artificial intelligence applied to blockchain:
1. Proof of Human-action
This one is a little more experimental, but it's a potential use case that could make the whole blockchain process run a lot smoother. What it is, is using AI to verify human-actions. "Human-actions" in this case could be things as simple as transferring a certain amount of currency from one account to another, it could also mean performing a certain action like sending a message, or making an API call. Now if you could program an AI to witness and recognize a specific human performing a specific action, then you could theoretically use that AI to track the human's actions on a blockchain. The AI would be able to "know" that the human transferred currency from an investor A to investor B, for example, because it would see the transaction on the blockchain. This would make it easier to track business deals and the like. The example is a little simplistic, but the potential uses are endless.
2. Smart Contract Auditing
Combining the ideas above, it should also be possible to create smart contracts that themselves perform certain actions when certain triggers are met, such as a currency exchange. The contract could automatically buy up a certain amount of a specific currency at a fixed rate, for instance. The contract would then sit and wait for someone to buy said currency at a certain price. When the price is matched, the contract would automatically perform the transaction and buy the amount of currency that was agreed upon by the two parties. This use case would be especially useful for companies or organizations with large amounts of currency that they want to liquidate but can't because they are bound by a smart contract to some other asset that has value, but not enough value to perform a buyback. Combining this with the idea above would allow companies to perform buybacks without having to spend money to buy their assets back.
3. Autonomous Organization
This is less of a use case and more of a long-term goal, but it should be possible to create organizations that exist solely on the blockchain. Not only would this be a means of organization for disorganized groups, but it would also allow for whole new types of organizations never before possible. Imagine a whole new class of worker organization that exists solely on the blockchain. Members would be able to set their work hours, be paid in cryptocurrency rather than the organization collecting dues in currency, etc. The possibilities here are endless when it comes to structuring the perfect worker's utopia.
There are endless other possibilities, some good, some bad, some that will never be possible. AI and blockchain technology are both still in their infancy and will both continue to improve in the years to come. Only time will tell which ideas are practical and which will be discarded.
Thanks for reading!
