AI needs blockchain technology to become more secure and democratic, analyst says

Artificial Intelligence applications need blockchain technology to become more secure and democratic, an analyst has said.

On Yahoo Finance Future Focus, Outlier Ventures research lead Jasper De Maere addressed the need for integrating blockchain technology with artificial intelligence (AI) applications to address security, privacy and centralisation concerns.

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"AI is great, but it also has some shortcomings, and some of the biggest ones are questionable practices around data privacy and security," De Maere said. He emphasised that the current state of the internet, often referred to as web2, is plagued by issues such as data privacy concerns, security vulnerabilities, and excessive centralisation.

"So, the combination of blockchain and AI would actually be able to pull us into a better state of the internet," De Maere added.

Protecting intellectual property rights through blockchain

De Maere specifically addressed the challenges posed by AI-generated art and the potential infringement on the intellectual property rights of original artists.

Various AI applications can rapidly produce fully rendered artwork based on textual prompts, often utilising existing professional artwork and photographs available on the internet.

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To safeguard the rights of original artists, De Maere suggested integrating blockchain technology as a transparent and immutable database for storing intellectual property information. Blockchain can serve as a register for data points related to asset generation, ownership, previous ownership, and royalty payments. This, he argued, would ensure the integrity and authenticity of AI-generated content by cross-referencing with a blockchain-based database.

De Maere stressed the contrast between the centralised, fragmented, and siloed databases presently used for storing intellectual property rights and the open infrastructure of blockchain, providing a more decentralised and accessible alternative.

Democratising access to AI tools

De Maere highlighted the significance of democratising access to AI tools. He explained that blockchain technology can help to decentralise the storage infrastructure, enabling AI to access and extract value from data in a more equitable manner.

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"We believe that the convergence of AI and blockchain is where the future is headed," De Maere concluded, emphasising the transformative potential of this integration for ensuring secure, transparent, and democratic AI applications.

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