a16z latest report: Crypto assets can solve some of the pressing challenges facing artificial intelligence

According to the report "The State of Crypto Assets in 2024" released by a16z, Crypto assets play an important role in addressing the challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI).

One of the problems facing artificial intelligence is that development is becoming increasingly expensive and centralized, and the report provides a decentralized solution with blockchain technology at its core.

The report highlights that 34% of Crypto asset projects currently employ AI, a significant jump from 27% in 2023, with many of these projects focused on making AI more accessible through decentralized networks.

At the same time, the cost of developing and training advanced AI models has skyrocketed, resulting in resources being concentrated in the hands of a few large technology companies. This centralization has limited innovation and the computing power needed to achieve AI breakthroughs.

However, Crypto asset projects are beginning to change this dynamic by decentralizing access to AI resources.

Projects like Gensyn are working to democratize AI computing power, the report noted.

Gensyn's decentralized network allows smaller developers and startups to access the computing resources needed to train AI models, removing the funding barriers traditionally associated with AI development.

By decentralizing AI infrastructure, these projects provide more participants with the opportunity to innovate in the field of AI, rather than leaving AI in the hands of a few dominant players.

In addition to decentralizing resources, blockchain technology can also improve the transparency of AI processes, especially in terms of intellectual property (IP) and content verification.

Projects such as Near and Story use blockchain to track and verify the provenance of digital content, ensuring that creators are properly credited and compensated.

Such verification systems address a growing problem in the field of AI, namely that training data sets often include material that creators have not authorized and compensated for.

The report also believes that the transparency of blockchain technology can help restore public confidence in the AI ​​industry.

Over the past five years, the US public's trust in AI companies has fallen sharply, from 50% to 35% in 2024.

Crypto asset developers are increasingly integrating AI into their projects, and blockchain infrastructure remains the category with the most AI adoption.

According to a16z's Builder Energy dashboard, builders are using AI to optimize smart contracts, enhance decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), and improve algorithmic trading systems.

The report points out that as blockchain infrastructure continues to improve, the potential for AI-driven applications in the Crypto ecosystem is also expanding.

The significant advancement of blockchain technology has greatly reduced transaction costs, making it easier to build scalable AI-driven applications.

The reduction in costs provides more opportunities for experimentation and innovation in combining AI with decentralized technologies, thereby developing new applications in areas such as identity verification, prediction markets, and content authentication.

These use cases all demonstrate the potential of AI to unlock new capabilities on blockchain platforms.