Example 3: Why Cryptocurrency Is So Vital: Artificial Intelligence

This is part of an ongoing series that I started writing about some of the present problems confronting society and how cryptocurrency/blockchain is the solution.

Here are the first installments:

https://busy.org/@taskmaster4450/example-1-why-cryptocurrency-is-so-vital-technological-unemployment

https://busy.org/@taskmaster4450/example-2-why-cryptocurrency-is-so-vital-wealth-inequality

Source

Artificial Intelligence captured the imagination of people.

To the futurists, it is a path to utopia. Many human problems can be solved by using AI for the benefit of humanity. As it advances, we will see the drudgery of the world eliminated. People will start to understand abundance.

This is countered by those with a dystopian view. They fear technology believing that it could be the end of humanity. Elon Musk feels that AI will place humans at the level of house cat.

The truth is nobody truly knows how it will work out. What we are aware of is that humans tend to fear what we do not know. It could be that the misgivings about the technology are being overdone. On the other hand, they might not be.

One thing that we need to be mindful of is who is controlling this powerful technology. So far, AI enhanced our ability to kill and to track people. The biggest gainers are governments and mega corporations (usually tech companies). This is something that should concern everyone.

Dr. Ben Goertzel is one of the leading AI minds on our planet. He is of the mindset that reaching full AGI is going to benefit humanity. This puts him in the first camp I mentioned. His utopian view is tempered by the fact he does not believe it should be in the hands of corporations nor governments. The use of artificial intelligence, thus far, is not how it should be.

He set out creating a "global brain". Through his work, he is creating a way where AI can be decentralized and available to anyone who needs it.

To cause the emergent “global brain” of the planet to grow in a direction guided by the democratic and richly participatory collaboration of a wide sample of human and AI systems — rather than being dominated by the interests and wills of a few elites.

He is well aware that the few are trying to monopolize the technology to further enhance their power base. This not only leads to the enslaving of people but also slows development. With the potential of AI, Goertzel feels that it is an ideal platform for global collaboration in a democratic way.

He took this to the point to create SingularityAI, which is a blockchain that will bring AI to the masses. He created a cryptocurrency to go with it which will allow users to pay developers for their work. Having it decentralized means that it is out of the control of any one group of people.

Another central aspect to this is paying people for their data. Presently we create billions of dollars worth of information, something that only a few profit from. Those who are creating in the data are not sharing in the rewards. This is something that the global brain network would address.

When direct financial profit is obtained from a person’s data, that person should get an opportunity to share in that profit appropriately

https://medium.com/daia/global-brain-network-high-level-project-proposal-b04486c64ea0

AI is going to be a part of humanity's future. Whether we ever see AGI or not remains to be seen. Goertzel believes we could reach it within a decade or two. Other AI experts feel that we will never get to that point.

Whatever it does eventually look like, the basic fact is we cannot have this technology in the hands of the elite few. It must be spread out to the masses. This is why blockchain and cryptocurrency are so important. It provides a vehicle to distribute the technology to the masses and an incentive to reward those who develop it.

This is becoming a trend in this industry. Wherever incentivization and decentralization is required, blockchain provides an option. Cryptocurrency is an ideal way to compensate contributors because the system becomes transparent and immutable.

The technologies match up very well.

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