A long road for AI
Streamr, the real-time data platform has partnered with blockchain deep learning platform Daisy AI. Streamr will provide real-time data on a large scale. Consequently, the partnership will boost blockchain deep learning.
‘Artificial Intelligence’ or AI has very significant potential. A Statista report mentions that AI will have a massive global market of US $ 89.8 billion by 2025. The technology could assist us in many functions such as engineering, medical fields, manufacturing, marketing, retail sales, etc. However, we have a long way to go before AI can realize it’s true potential.
AI needs a large amount of data. The algorithms need to ‘learn’ which they can do by recognizing patterns. Recognizing patterns requires data on a large scale. However, it’s not easy to feed data at that volume. Let’s understand who owns the data. Governments own it through various government programs.
Furthermore, big businesses also own a lot of data. Governments can’t part with data due to large-scale privacy concerns. It’s a different matter that hackers often target them.
Big businesses like Facebook and Google also own our data when we sign-up with them. Their business models often depend on sending us targeted content based on our data, although we may not like it. Data privacy breaches have become too commonplace now, which again exposes us to risks. The net effect is that these centralized organizations own our data. AI platforms can’t securely access this data, making it difficult for AI to progress.
The technology also needs heavy-duty computing. AI algorithms require large data sets. However, they also need to process massive amounts of data at high speed. These requirements call for significant investment. However, that’s not easy for all businesses. The result is AI confinement to technology giants with deep pockets.
Securely Democratizing AI
People are understandably wary about their data. They don’t know when technology giants may share their data, and who sees their data. They receive no compensation either. If there are incentives, then people may be more inclined to share their data. These participants would also need assurance that only what they allow will be shared.
AI needs accurate data. Corrupted data can make the AI algorithms learn quite the ‘wrong’ lessons. This is another impediment to AIs’ growth. This is a classic blockchain use case since decentralization is one of its’ key value proposition. Crypto tokens can incentivize individuals to share their data. Smart contracts will ensure that the control of data remains with individuals. Finally, consensus algorithms and modern cryptography guard against tampering of data.
Daisy AI is a project from the Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Research Center in the University of Tokyo. They aim to improve the quality of data fed to the deep learning algorithms. They use the blockchain technology for this. Streamr is a Zug, Switzerland-based blockchain-powered data platform. It aims to facilitate real-time data exchange. They ensure free and fair data exchange over their P2P platform. Users sharing data receive compensation in the form of their DATA crypto token.
The Streamr/Daisy AI partnership ticks all boxes hence, it promises to boost the blockchain deep learning landscape. Henri Pihkala, CEO of Streamr is upbeat about the project. Shohei Ohsawa, CEO of Daisy AI is also clear that the data feed from Streamr will help their blockchain deep learning platform. Their optimism is justified. Crypto analytics firm CRYPTICS has also become a vendor of Streamr. They will sell their data to Streamr. This could help crypto traders tackle the crypto volatility since rich analytics can improve crypto market predictions.
