Mathematically, the power set of the intersection of two sets equals the intersection of the power sets of each set.
Intersectionality, the way various technologies interact, impact the ways that the individual technologies benefit from the power of the intersection. Power is always present in relationships. It is important to recognise the power that innovations represent in the development of the human race in the context of their ability to reduce friction, inefficiencies, and provide insights beyond the capabilities of the single human mind. Empowerment is to capitalise on the power that each technology possesses to strengthen and expand complementing technologies at their intersection points.
It is impossible not to acknowledge that AI and blockchain are two of the major innovative technologies that not only will they have an influence on other future innovations, but will also have a significant impact on the future of the human race. Each of these complex technologies have their own potential business implications, but the joint use of the two may result in the ability to redesign the entire technological (and human) paradigm.
Blockchain and AI technologies are not simply disruptive innovations, but rather foundational technologies. While blockchain broadly aims to reduce friction through decentralisation, AI aims to achieve Superintelligence. We think it is not possible to achieve this intelligence via a single super computer, rather by a network of several intelligences that in our opinion forms the intersection between these two fundamental technologies.
While many companies are investigating the ability to use AI to address some of the fundamental weaknesses in distributed ledger technology such as energy consumption, scalability, efficiency, security and privacy, at Pearls Capital we find the ability to use the decentralised infrastructure of blockchain as a possible enabler of AI development towards achieving superintelligence very promising (Notwithstanding the prospect of quantum computing and the role it will play in accelerating this development of both these technologies, but that is a subject for another blog).
One of the main areas that will require focus over the coming years is for AI systems to be explainable in order to meet certain regulations including applicable EU directives, which will likely have global impact. These rules aim to avoid any explainability problems by having a clear audit trail to allow for the creation of a route to trace the AI’s decision process. In our opinion, blockchain has the potential to address this issue as well as control the risk of AI making catastrophic decisions by restricting actions via smart contract technology. However, the value of utilising blockchain in AI spans beyond this, and ventures into empowering AI with the fuel it needs to learn and develop, with this fuel being data in a decentralised and accessible manner.
Last but not least, and as you may have guessed, I am a big believer in the power of intersections and I believe that the combination of these technologies together with open source and cloud computing are lowering the barriers to entry. This will result in more people tackling existing problems, which will inevitably result in faster resolutions to existing challenges and problematic situations that may arise in the future.
We would love to hear from you if you are an entrepreneur working on utilising these technologies in the FinTech, InsureTech, PropTech, HealthTech or EdTech.
Munder Shuhumi
