Tag: Blockchain

Artificial Intelligence

WHAT IS THE PAUL ALLEN INSTITUTE FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis. Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your technology questions are answered, mostly correct! Here no question is too mundane. As a bonus, a proverb is also included. Today’s question comes from in Mark, Naperville, USA. Mark wants to know, what is the Paul Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence?

Mark, you came to the right place. Let’s take a moment first to understand, who was Paul Allen. Mr. Allen made his fortune as a Microsoft co-founder. Perhaps his name sounds familiar from the Microsoft connection? Allen passed away in 2018 at age 65. Too young! Lol! Before Allen’s passing, he established three research institutions, including the AI research.

Paul Allen AI Institute, commonly known as AI2, was established in 2014. AI2 is in Seattle and Tel Aviv, Israel. The mission of AI2 is “…to contribute to humanity through high impact AI research and engineering.” Let’s dive into what AI2 produces–it generates plenty—beginning with Aristo.

Aristo. Aristo was AI2’s first project. The concept powering Aristo was to create a “Digital Aristotle” capable of answering users’ questions, and ultimately holding a discussion. Aristo was designed to understand elementary science by reading relevant text. In 2019 Aristo scored over 90% on a collection of multiple-choice, eight grade science exams. Better than me, lol! AI2 readily admits Aristo remains incapable of understanding science in a meaning way. Holy ancient Greek, Batman!

Semantic Scholars. Semantic Scholar accelerates scientific breakthroughs by helping scholars locate and understand key research results, make important connections, and overcome information overload. AI2 says Semantic Scholar is an AI-based search engine for scientific literature, including more than 200 million papers covering all scientific disciplines. It draws 10M users monthly. Semantic Scholar can decode PDF files to extract and understand the full-text content beyond titles, authors, and references to include figures and concepts. Semantic Scholar played a leading role in creating the Covid-19 open research dataset.

AllenNLP. AllenNLP executes groundbreaking research in natural language processing, including improving systems’ performance, accountability, and advancing scientific methodologies for evaluating and understanding systems.

PRIOR. PRIOR is the computer vision research team. The goal is advanced computer vision leading to AI systems that can perceive the world, reason about it, and act within it. PRIOR has three research priorities: 1) embodied AI systems capable of interacting with objects, humans, and other agents in the real world; 2) vision and language multi-modal systems that can perform tasks that require an understanding of visual and language data; and 3) computer vision for the common good, e.g., a platform that can detect illegal fishing vessels via satellite imagery.

Green AI. Green AI is dedicated to reducing the cost of training and using AI systems—less expensive AI systems are accessible to more practitioners and contribute less to climate change.

Mosaic. Mosaic was formed in 2018 with the goal of building AI with common sense. Common sense is the ability to acquire and use every day experiential knowledge. Obviously, Ais lack commonsense. Good luck with this one. Lol.

AI Environment. Applied AI for climate modeling and wildlife protection.
• Earth Ranger: Software that aids ecologists and wildlife biologists make more informed wildlife conservation decisions.
• Skylight: Helps reduce illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing through technology that provides actionable intelligence for maritime enforcement.
• Climate Modeling: The goal is to improve the world’s understanding of climate change, its effects, and what can be done now.
• Wildlands: Machine learning to support wildland fire management.

We conclude with a Norwegian proverb: Behind the clouds, the sky is always blue.

Until next time,

Yogi Nelson

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WHAT DID VITALIK BUTERIN RECENTLY SAY ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis. Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where questions are answered, mostly correct! Here no question is too mundane. As a bonus, a proverb is also included. Today’s question comes from Art in San Francisco, CA. Art asks what does Vitalik Buterin think of artificial intelligence?

Art, you came to the right place. Before I explain Vitalik’s thoughts, let’s know Buterin first. Vitalik is a 29-year-old Russian Canadian computer programmer and a co-founder of Ethereum. Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain network, known for pioneering smart contracts, among other advancements in computation. From an early age Vitalik demonstrated an amazing ability to grasp mathematics and computer science. That’s not a surprise given his father was a computer scientist. Holy, like father, like son, Batman! Given his genius with computers, it makes sense you would ask what Vitalik makes of AI.

On November 23, Vitalik published his “My Techno Optimism” paper.
https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/11/27/techno_optimism.html?ref=bankless.ghost.io Vitalik’s summary perspective is below followed by highlights from across the major points of his paper.

“I believe in a future that is vastly brighter than the present thanks to radically transformative technology, and I believe in humans and humanity. I reject the mentality that the best we should try to do is to keep the world roughly the same as today but with less greed and more public healthcare. However, I think that not just magnitude but also direction matters. There are certain types of technology that much more reliably make the world better than other types of technology. There are certain types of technology that could, if developed, mitigate the negative impacts of other types of technology. The world over-indexes on some directions of tech development, and under-indexes on others. We need active human intention to choose the directions that we want, as the formula of “maximize profit” will not arrive at them automatically.”

Vitalik Buterin, My Techno-Optisium

Buterin argues there are very high costs to delaying technological progress. He cites life expectancy improvements and the internet, as evidence for not holding back technological advancements. Vitalik makes the case for using advancements in AI to solve environmental challenges, including climate change.

Vitalik believes AI is fundamentally different from previous advancements in technology and therefore requires significantly more consideration. Vitalik says AI is the creation of a new and powerful brain whereas previous inventions were contraptions. “AI is a new type of mind that is rapidly gaining in intelligence, and it stands a serious chance of overtaking humans’ mental faculties and becoming the new apex species on the planet”, says Buterin. Vitalik cites scientists that are worried AI could wipe out humanity! Holy doomsday, Batman!

Buterin, is equally concerned with “digital authoritarianism”. Vitalik points out Open AI, with a mere 500 employees, services 100,000,000 customers with immensely powerful machines! Power could be centralized by just a handful of people one day, is Vitalik’s worry.

Vitalik pens a lengthy narrative regarding the e/acc movement. According to Vitalik, e/acc is “… fundamentally about an appreciation of the truly massive benefits of technological progress, and a desire to accelerate this trend to bring those benefits sooner.” Jeff Bezos is the most prominent advocate. In a point-by-point fashion, Buterin shares what he believes are the implications of e/acc across a range of topics, including: military technology, decentralized governance, cyber security, multi-planetary living, world government, to name a few topics.

We conclude today with this proverb from the Dominican Republic: With patience and calm, a donkey can climb a palm tree. Well said my Caribbean brethren!

Until next time,

Yogi Nelson

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WHAT MONETARY SYSTEM DOES THE CARDANO BLOCKCHAIN USE?

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis. Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your questions are answered, mostly correct! Here no question is too mundane. As a bonus, a proverb is also included. Today’s question is from Bhante Chandra from Kandy, Sri Lanka, and he wants to know what monetary system does the Cardano Blockchain use?

Bhante, you came to the right place. Let’s start first with explaining Cardano. Cardano is a decentralized, open source blockchain network that burst onto the scene in 2017. Charles Hoskinson, Cardano’s founder, created Cardano as a third generation blockchain. Bitcoin and Ethereum were generations one and two, respectively. Of course, Bitcoin was released by an anonymous developer (Satoshi Nakamura) in 2008, and Ethereum by a team, including Hoskinson, in 2015.

Cardano is recognized for its research-based approach. Cardano technology is based on nearly 200 peer reviewed academic research reports. Critics say Cardano is slow to the market; Cardano proponents acknowledge the critique. However, Cardano advocates say they are oven cooking not microwaving. Fair point! First and second generation blockchains were energy gluttons because they were constructed with proof of work consensus systems; Cardano was built using a proof of stake consensus system making it extremely energy efficient. Love a green blockchain!

Cardano is focused on solving the blockchain trilemma problem of balancing speed, scalability, and security. Essentially, the trilemma problem in blockchain says the more one or two issues are solved the worse off are the remaining. Holy no way out, Batman! Cardano also is recognized for its smart contract capabilities. Smart contracts facilitate the transfer of value from peer to peer without intermediaries. Now about the monetary system.

The Cardano network uses crypto currency to pay for transactions. Cardano currency is known as ADA, named after the famous British female mathematician and computer programmer, Ada Lovelace. Smaller denominations of ADAs are called Lovelace and they go out six decimal places, .000006. Bust out the calculator!

Cardano began with a total supply of 45B ADA. However, not all were release upon inception; that would be irresponsible. Instead, Cardano has phased in ADA distribution. Cardano is de-inflationary by design, meaning the supply of ADA decreases with time.

Let’s talk about the Cardano treasury and your personal Cardano treasury. Cardano’s treasury has three revenue sources: minting; donations; and taxation from block rewards. Great! Now, how does an individual grow their personal Cardano treasury? Here too there are multiple avenues. You could, for example, purchase ADA on an exchange, such as Coinbase. Suppose you purchased ADA, what next? Well, you could earn additional ADA by “staking it”. Staking is blockchain/crypto jargon for earning rewards. Think of it as interest payments for locking up and “lending” your ADA. Or you can operate your own stake pool and earn ADA directly. Operating a skating pool requires technical computer skills; learn and earn!

Once you have a bag of ADA, where to keep the stash is the question. Here again you have options. You can store your ADA on a centralized exchange, e.g., Coinbase. There are pros and cons to centralized exchanges, that go beyond this post. Or you can self-custody your stack; that too comes with advantages and disadvantages. Several self-custody wallets are available, including Typhon Wallet, Flint Wallet, or Yoroi Wallet.

A special thanks to Cardano and Emurgo Academy for supplying the information for today’s post. Time to go, but not before sharing an Egyptian proverb: “You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell a man is wise by his questions.

Until next time,

Yogi Nelson

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WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF BLOCKCHAIN?

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis. Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your questions are answered, mostly correct! Here no question is too mundane. As a bonus, a proverb is also included. Today’s question comes from Ashley in Texas, who wants to know, what is the future of blockchain?

Ashley, you came to the right place. Blockchain technology has enormous potential; however, it must conquer immediate challenges. Let’s begin with five challenges facing blockchain technology today: 1) scalability; 2) initial set-up costs; 3) smooth transition; 4) consensus mechanisms; and 5) privacy and security. I’ll focus on a few solutions, commencing with “sharding”

Sharding is a process for handling large data sets. Sharding accelerates processing by dividing the computational workload and storage space issues. It ensures no single mode (computer) is responsible for processing the network’s transactional load. Sharding increases security through transparent processing on a decentralized network. Sharding is not alone; it has a friend known as sidechains; not to be confused with 2Chainz the rapper! Lol.

Sidechains are separate blockchains attached to the mainchain. Often, sidechains are deployed to test new software before joining the mainchain. Sidechains offer more security when moving digital assets from one blockchain to another and reduce the mainchain’s workload; hence, making the blockchain faster and more reliable. What else is under construction? Answer—state channels.

Despite their Orwellian name, state channels are not spooky. State channels basically “lock” the blockchain while participants agree amongst themselves off-chain. Once participants reach consensus the transaction is uploaded onto the mainchain for processing. Let’s keep rolling with “Roll-Ups”.

Rollups are scaling solutions. Roll-ups move computation off-chain while keeping transaction data on-chain. Keeping the data on-chain allows anyone to locally process all computation in the roll-up and detect fraud. There are two types of roll-ups: Optimistic and ZK. Optimistic roll-ups assume the data/transactions are correct. However, to ensure accuracy, transactions are not final for one week. During the data verification week anyone may submit fraud proof. If no honest individual spots an error, transactions are final. If errors are spotted the transactions can be reversed. What about ZK-Rollups? ZK-Rollups stands for zero knowledge. No, it does not mean the protocol is a know nothing, lol! It means every rollup batch contains a cryptographic hash, thus making transaction more secure. In other words, possession of the private key opens the file and nothing else is required. However, with the increase in security also comes computationally intensive processes. Time, money, and energy consumption.

Charles Hoskinson, Cardano founder, is fond of saying blockchains need their “wi-fi” moment. Said differently, blockchains must achieve interoperability. Imagine having to switch providers every moment to access wi-fi. What a mess! Blockchain interoperability equals users having a seamless integration of capabilities, communication with and between intermediaries, and greater decentralization. Get it done!

Let’s wrap it up with Ricardian contracts. A Ricardian contract is a mechanism to record a document as law and link it to other sectors, i.e., accounting. A Ricardian contract is responsible for executing contracts between two parties and recording the details in forms that are readable by humans and machines. Moreover, the dual abilities of Ricardian contracts equal superior user experiences when compared to smart contracts. Holy dual use!

Today’s “proverb” is curtesy of Yogi Berra to old time baseball star who once said, “it’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future”! lol. Nevertheless, I predict blockchain will evolve and eventually become mainstream technology with widespread applications. Thanks to the Emurgo Academy for providing the source material of today’s post. The art work is by Gerardo Cloquell and on display in Dorado, PR.

Until next time,

Yogi Nelson

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WHAT IS A DECENTRALIZED APPLICATION (D-APP)?

Yogi Nelson

Namaste Yogis.   Welcome to the Blockchain & AI Forum, where your blockchain and artificial intelligence technology questions are answered, mostly correct!   Here no question is too mundane.  As a bonus, a proverb is also included.  Roger from New Hampshire wants to know what is a decentralized application (D-App)?

Roger, you came to the right place. Let’s start by first defining app.  App is an abbreviation for application.  If you say application, you risk being un-cool and might be place in computer lexicon detention!  Ha, ha.  An app is computer software. Apps can be downloaded on to your computer or phone.    The app communicates with the hardware and software on your computer/phone to provide the specific function, think YouTube.  Apps are distributed by a central authority across numerous computers, by Apple for instance.  Now, D-Apps.

D-Apps are also software but differ from apps in important aspects.  For example, D-Apps are executed on decentralized peer-to-peer networks; as noted above, apps are centralized. 

D-Apps are governed by smart contracts, whereas, apps are governed by the distributing authority, such as Apple.  D-apps make use of smart contracts and the rules contained in smart contracts allow D-Apps to run autonomously, that is not the case with apps.  Wait there’s more! 

D-Apps are open-source software; apps are closed-source.  Linux is an open-source software example.  Open-source software is available to everyone for use, modification, and distribution; closed-source apps require permission.  D-Apps store their data on a public blockchain for all to examine anytime from anywhere.  Excellent. Of course, smart contracts connect D-Apps to the blockchain.  Finally, D-Apps use cryptographic tokens and apps don’t. 

I assume your next question is, what are the benefits of D-Apps? I’ll give you three benefits.  First, D-Apps are fault tolerant.  By fault tolerant, I mean D-Apps as a system are more resilient and can operate, if one or more components fail.  I like it.  Second, because D-Apps are decentralized they are censorship resistant.  There is no Big Brother! D-Apps are open source and on a public blockchain, hence they generate confidence because as President Reagan often said, “trust but verify!”  

Is there a “test” to determine if a D-App is truly decentralized?  The short answer is yes!  To assess decentralization, ask these five questions: 1) are all users treated in a fair and equal manner; 2) is the source code open; 3) is the D-App built on top of a decentralized blockchain; 4) key decisions are made by the community; and 5) developers are not exclusively in control of the code.   

Let me wrap it up by offering three D-App use cases.  First, is the management and transfer of money.  Roger, have you transferred money from USA to another country?  I have.  If you have you understand the expense and complication.  Ugly. The fees and hassle are unreal but with a D-App the transfer costs pennies, is painless, and free of intermediaries.  D-Apps can also streamline business processes leading to greater efficiencies.  Last, via their smart contract, D-Apps can power a decentralized autonomous organization. (DAO) DAO is an organization without hierarchical structure.  DAOs are administered, in part, with the assistance of smart contracts. I’ll cover DAOs and smart contracts in greater detail in future editions.

Roger, it’s time to boogie, but not before mentioning that in Yemen there is a proverb that says, “If you give people nuts, you’ll get shells thrown at you.”  Hopefully, the few nuts of information I shared today won’t be thrown back at me!

Until next time,

Yogi Nelson