The Web3 and AI Newsletter 4
Hello again, everyone, and welcome to all new subscribers!
This is the Web3 + AI newsletter, where we explore the intersection of blockchain and artificial intelligence. Today marks the first-month anniversary of Web3 + AI, and I am particularly happy to see our community constantly growing. As our tradition goes, find below the batch of startup updates and news I have prepared for you.
Thank you for being here! Let's dive in!
What's New in the Web3 + AI Startup World?
OORT Launches Its Mainnet
OORT is a provider of decentralized, cost-effective, and privacy-preserving data cloud infrastructure that can be leveraged to power generative AI solutions. It has recently released its Layer-1 mainnet Olympus together with its accompanying Yellow Paper. Instead of using blockchain, Olympus is based on the Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) technology that is known to deliver fast transaction speed, higher scalability (number of executed transactions per second), and almost no transaction fees.
The difference between blockchain and DAG lies in the fact that DAGs remove the notion of blocks altogether. In a DAG, each transaction verifies the next one and there is no mining / validating new blocks, which results in higher throughput. However, it could be argued that DAGs are not decentralized at all, which is a tradeoff many chains are willing to make. Right now, Olympus's witnesses, meaning validators, are only 14, but that is normal for a network still in its bootstrapping phase. It remains to be seen whether the team will manage to further decentralize it.
On-Chain Stability.ai Model by Render Network, io.net, and Solana
BC8.ai is probably the first successful attempt at running Stability.ai's Stable Diffusion text-to-image model entirely on-chain. It is deployed on Render's GPU nodes in io.net's clusters. Since bc8's launch on November 1st, more than 10K prompts were executed, as the accompanying 50K+ transactions took place on the Solana blockchain.
Aethir Integrates Gold Fever
Aethir, the decentralized cloud infrastructure (DCI) for gaming and AI, has recently announced its partnership with the adrenaline-addictive game Gold Fever.
This strategic collaboration will leverage Aethir's cutting-edge decentralized cloud gaming infrastructure, enabling Gold Fever to be accessible on any device, anywhere, at any time. The integration aims to open Gold Fever to a potential market of 2.8 billion players worldwide. Onboarding these players will involve burning NGL tokens as an in-game right.
The integration will enable gamers with poor hardware resources to play Gold Fever on any device with the simplicity of a single click, thanks to Aethir's robust infrastructure. It will thus unlock web3 gaming's real-world revenue potential for millions of users.
Noteworthy Podcasts, Articles, Events
Forbes Doxxing e/acc's Co-Founder Beff Jezos
Just a day after I published my overview of the Techno-Optimism, e/acc, d/acc, and Effective Altruism ideologies, Forbes magazine published quite a misleading and disparaging article, revealing the identity of one of e/acc's co-founders.
Friday night, Forbes reporter Emily Baker-White doxed the anonymous tech positivity account Beff Jezos (revealed the man’s legal name against his wishes), wildly implied his posts were in some manner adjacent to white supremacy, and proudly shared an interview he granted under extreme emotional duress.
The X tech community reacted strongly in support of Beff Jezos, mainly because the article implies that Beff's anonymous account, as well as any other such account, is allegedly a cover for some criminal activity.
If you are interested in learning more, you can listen to Beff's first in-face interview, where he recounts his experience and reveals his reasons for wanting to remain anonymous.
Although Beff and his AI startup Extropic have nothing to do with blockchain at the moment, he is a strong believer that future AI agents will surely transact in crypto. Moreover, being an advocate for AI decentralization, Beff confirms that joining forces with the blockchain community is the logical step forward.
I am sharing that piece of news simply because the above-mentioned Forbes article doesn't seem like a genuine journalistic investigation. Besides, it is interesting to observe the way mainstream media selectively, but quite intentionally, cover just some tech opinion leaders.
IBM, Meta, and Others Launch AI Alliance
Tech behemoths IBM and Meta, together with more than 50 other industry leaders, announced the establishment of the AI Alliance, aimed at the advancement of open, safe, and reliable AI. Prominent names from the open-source industry such as Hugging Face and The Linux Foundation, as well as chipmakers Intel and AMD also take part in the partnership.
The deal also includes an annual Research and Development (R&D) investment of over $80B. Moreover,
According to IBM and Meta, the AI Alliance will create a governing board and technical oversight committee focused on advancing AI projects and setting standards and guidelines. The alliance aims to collaborate with governments, nonprofits, and nongovernment organizations operating in the AI sector.
Open is the key concept the AI Alliance proclaims to counter companies like Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft, which insist on and promote closed-source AI development. Back in July, the latter formed the Frontier Model Forum watchdog to help regulate AI.
Therefore, with that announcement, the two competing camps of AI builders, the open and the closed, are finally revealed. We can, at last, recognize all those who fight for the open-source cause.
Non-Binding Agreement on AI Security
Last week, another “safe AI” initiative concluded with 18 countries, including the US and the UK, signing an international agreement. It aims at making artificial intelligence safe from rogue actors and appeals to companies designing and deploying AI to put safety first. However, the agreement is non-binding and carries mostly general recommendations such as monitoring AI systems for abuse, protecting data from tampering and vetting software suppliers.
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Final Push to Pass the EU AI Act
As I reported before, the so-called foundational models turned out to be a major stumbling stone to the passing of the EU's world-leading AI legislation, as France, Germany, and Italy refused to accept the stringent dispositions required by the EP. Consequently, it seemed for a while that the act was doomed. However, the Spanish presidency is not ready to call it quits yet.
Yesterday and today, Dec. 6th and 7th, the negotiations continue, and as of the time of writing, a provisional agreement has been reached.
However, the EU institutions and nation-states are so eager to claim that victory and reap the rewards of being the first in the world to pass AI regulation, that they may pass it at any cost. At least at the moment, they seem more preoccupied with the reputational side effects of the deal than anything else.
Disclaimer: None of this should or could be considered financial advice. You should not take my words for granted, rather, do your own research (DYOR) and share your thoughts to create a fruitful discussion.
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