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AI’s Exponential Growth: Is Centralization Hindering Academic Progress?

FM Contributors July 22, 2024

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AI’s Exponential Growth: Is Centralization Hindering Academic Progress?

2024-07-22T12:16:30.906+02:00

Monday, 22/07/2024 | 10:16 GMT by
FM

AI technology is allowing researchers to tackle bigger and more complex problems faster.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the world of academia and research fast. The AI models and capabilities are opening up new research opportunities for academics and research labs everywhere. This is exponential, so we’re gaining knowledge at an incredible rate. But the centralized nature of AI development is a big problem that could kill the collaborative research potential of AI.

The Exponential Growth of AI

AI technology is allowing researchers to tackle bigger and more complex problems faster and more accurately. Advanced AI models can process massive amounts of data, find patterns and make predictions that were previously impossible. This is driving exponential growth in innovation and learning, resulting in breakthroughs in areas like healthcare, environmental science and engineering. The potential for AI to accelerate the rate of knowledge gain is huge, so we’ll see big advances in research and applications.

Researchers’ Challenges

Despite the promise, researchers face several big challenges in using AI for their work. One of the main problems is lack of access to affordable computing resources. High performance computing is needed to train advanced AI models but it’s often too expensive for many academic institutions and smaller research labs. The cost of buying and maintaining dedicated hardware is a big barrier, stopping researchers from experimenting and innovating.

And many advanced AI models are controlled by big corporations so there’s a lack of transparency. These models are often developed in silos, with limited access to the underlying data and algorithms. This lack of openness is killing collaboration and slowing down innovation, as researchers can’t build on each other’s work.

Decentralised AI: A Scalable and Collaborative Solution

Decentralised AI is a scalable and collaborative solution to these challenges. By distributing computational resources across a network of nodes, decentralized AI platforms make AI capabilities accessible to all. This means high performance computing is more affordable and researchers can share resources and knowledge freely.

Qubic: A Decentralised AI Example

Qubic is a platform that combines blockchain with AI to create a decentralised AI environment. At the heart of Qubic is the Useful Proof of Work (uPoW) system which ensures computational power is used for AI training tasks and not for network security. This allows researchers to get the computational resources they need without the cost of traditional methods.

AIgarth: The AI Framework of Qubic

At the core of Qubic’s AI is AIgarth, an AI framework that uses the compute power of Qubic’s nodes to create and train artificial neural networks (ANNs). AIgarth has a continuous improvement loop where ANNs train on data compression tasks and a higher level AI, called Teacher, optimizes those ANNs. This way the compute is focused on actual AI progress not just busy work.

Community Driven

Qubic’s decentralized AI is community driven where decisions and control are distributed among its participants. This prevents centralization of power and encourages a sense of community among users. The governance and decision making process of the platform is done by the community of Computors and miners, so everyone feels like they own and are part of the process.

Case Study: Qubic in an Academic Environment

Imagine a university research lab working on developing new AI models for medical diagnostics. They have limited funding and no access to high performance computing resources. By joining a decentralized AI network like Qubic they can use the compute power of the nodes. They would no longer need to buy expensive hardware and can collaborate with other researchers in the ecosystem.

As the lab trains their AI models on the decentralized platform they contribute to the overall security and efficiency of the network through the uPoW system. The compute tasks performed by the lab’s researchers validate transactions and maintain the blockchain, creating a symbiotic relationship between AI research and network security. The lab also benefits from the quorum-based validation and gets confidence in the results of their research.

The units earned by the lab can be used to get more compute resources or to incentivize collaboration with other researchers. This flexible use of resources is how a decentralized AI ecosystem can support academic research in a sustainable way.

True AI

The vision for decentralized AI goes beyond compute power; it’s to have AI that benefits all of humanity. By having AI and blockchain integrated in a seamless way decentralized AI platforms will enable research and applications that were previously not possible. The focus on transparency, efficiency and community driven governance ensures it stays aligned with the values of the academic and research community.

Breaking down Barriers with Decentralized AI

AI is a game changer for human progress but it has to be accessible and equitable to really benefit humanity. Decentralized AI platforms with Useful Proof of Work, decentralized governance and AI & blockchain integration solve the problems faced by researchers. By making AI research scalable, affordable and collaborative decentralized platforms will unlock new frontiers of knowledge and innovation and make the benefits of AI available to all.

Future of Research

As we look ahead it’s clear AI will revolutionize research and development. But to make that happen we need to create inclusive and transparent systems that enable collaboration and innovation. Decentralized AI ecosystems are a step in that direction, a robust and sustainable model for academic and research institutions worldwide.

By using blockchain and AI decentralized platforms solve the current problems in AI research and build the foundation for a more collaborative and fair future. Community driven and transparent, these platforms will remain a valuable resource for researchers to push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI.

In the AI & blockchain space decentralized AI ecosystems are the embodiment of innovation and collaboration, showing what decentralized technologies can do for human knowledge and progress. By using frameworks like AIgarth these platforms will make AI development not only robust but also always evolving so AI serves humanity better.