Updates November 20, 2020
Artificial intelligence is the hypothesis and practice with regards to building machines equipped for performing tasks that seem to require intelligence. At present, cutting edge technologies endeavoring to influence this reality to incorporate machine learning, artificial neural networks and deep learning
In the meantime, blockchain is another documenting framework for computerized data, which stores information in an encrypted, distributed ledger format. Since information is encrypted and distributed across many different computers, it empowers the making of carefully designed, exceptionally robust databases which can be read and updated only by those with permission.
Every innovation has its level of complexity, however, the combination of the two might be advantageous to both. Although much has been composed from an academic point of view on the capability of combining these ground-breaking technologies, real-world applications are scanty right now. Nonetheless, I expect this situation to change shortly.
AI, BLOCKCHAIN AND DATA
It’s fair to say we find ourselves in an AI revolution of sorts and this is mostly because of the advancements being made in the field of Big Data.
The handling of data is an undeniably hot topic and businesses dealing with it – for commercial reasons or something else – have a legal and moral responsibility to safeguard it.
The emergence and abundance of data have catalyzed blockchain as a viable data storage solution. Not at all like cloud-based solutions, the data on a blockchain is broken up into small sections and distributed across the entire computer network. Each computer or node holds a complete copy of the ledger and no central authority or control point is meaning that if one or two nodes are undermined, data will not be lost.
All that takes place on the blockchain is encrypted and the data cannot be altered. Essentially, this means blockchains are the ideal storeroom for sensitive or personal data which, if processed with care with the use of AI, can help unlock profitable bespoke experiences for consumers.
TRACKING POWER
Decisions taken by AI systems can be troublesome for people to comprehend, however, blockchain can shed new light on this by helping us track the thinking process, and understand decisions.
Being able to record AI’s decision-making process on a blockchain could be a noteworthy step towards increased transparency. In this instance, blockchain would fill a similar need as the board, with the exception that the data composed on the latter can be modified or erased whereas on the blockchain it would be immutable and permanent.
COMPUTING
Finally, even though they are incredibly useful in our daily lives, computers are unable to carry out a task without getting explicit instructions.
If you were to operate a blockchain, with all its encrypted data, on a computer you’d need a lot of processing power. The hashing algorithms used to mine Bitcoin blocks, for instance, take a “brute force” approach – which consists in systematically enumerating all possible candidates for the solution and checking whether each candidate satisfies the problem’s statement before confirming a transaction.
AI allows us to move far from this and tackle tasks more progressively and efficiently. Imagine a machine learning-based algorithm, which could practically sharpen its skills in ‘real-time’ if it were fed the appropriate training data.
Even though blockchain and AI have extraordinary potential in their own right, one can't resist the urge to ponder what they may accomplish if their consolidated power were put to great use. The two technologies are mutually inclusive, and could potentially pave the way for a much more transparent, and efficient world.
