The merging of AI and blockchain was inevitable – but what will it mean?

At first glance, artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain might appear as divergent domains. Blockchain prioritizes decentralization but is encumbered by limited memory capacity and throughput limitations.

Conversely, AI flourishes on vast datasets and necessitates high-performance computing resources. Specifically, machine learning (ML) models—particularly deep learning networks—demand colossal quantities of data for effective training, often depending on potent GPUs or specialized hardware to swiftly process this data.

According to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the global electricity consumption for AI is anticipated to soar to 800 TWh by 2026, marking a nearly 75% surge from 460 TWh in 2022. This trend is echoed by major financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, with the latter forecasting that by 2030, AI-related energy usage will represent 16% of the USA's present electricity consumption.

The intersection of these technologies is becoming increasingly pronounced.

Despite their apparent distinctions, the tech landscape is witnessing a burgeoning convergence between AI and blockchain, with numerous groundbreaking projects surfacing. For instance, Ocean is a protocol that offers a decentralized data exchange hub, facilitating AI access to data while safeguarding its privacy and security.

In a similar vein, ThoughtAI integrates AI and blockchain directly into data, effectively obviating traditional application layers. This integration aims to develop more agile and adaptive AI solutions, potentially transforming user interactions with technology and information management.

While these initiatives showcase the potential of merging AI and blockchain, they also underscore a crucial challenge: scalability. For AI on blockchain to truly thrive, platforms must address the inherent constraints of conventional blockchain frameworks, particularly concerning data accessibility and throughput.

In this context, 0G has made notable advancements in overcoming these limitations. ZeroGravity (0G) is the pioneering data availability system featuring a general-purpose storage layer that is both highly scalable and decentralized. Its scalability is achieved by bifurcating the data availability workflow into publishing and storage lanes.

Technically speaking, 0G is a scalable Data Availability (DA) service layer built atop a decentralized storage system. It tackles the scalability challenge by reducing the volume of data transfer required for broadcasting—enabling unprecedented levels of data availability and transaction throughput.

A significant advantage of 0G lies in its performance. Whereas competitors like Celestia achieve approximately 1.4 to 1.5 megabytes per second, the 0G network boasts a remarkable throughput of around 50 gigabytes per second, making it 50,000 times faster. Moreover, 0G’s cost is roughly 100 times lower than that of its closest rivals.

This extraordinary level of performance and adaptability paves the way for a plethora of AI/blockchain applications that were previously unfeasible. In the financial sector, for instance, 0G’s scalability could enable sophisticated AI-driven trading algorithms to function directly on-chain.

Similarly, the potential to implement large-scale federated learning systems on the blockchain could lead to significant advancements in privacy-preserving AI—where multiple entities can collaboratively train AI models without disclosing sensitive data directly. Such progress could have profound implications in domains like healthcare, where data confidentiality is crucial but collaborative research is vital.

An immense economic opportunity awaits.

Looking ahead, it is evident that the convergence of AI and blockchain will continue to grow and evolve.

This integration is not merely a technological novelty but represents a substantial economic opportunity. For instance, the AI sector is projected to reach an astonishing $1.3 trillion by 2030, while the blockchain market is expected to attain a valuation of $248.8 billion by 2029, reflecting their transformative impact across nearly every sector of the global economy.

Consequently, companies and platforms (such as 0G) that adeptly navigate this convergence—addressing technical challenges while unlocking new value propositions—are poised to capture a substantial share of this trillion-dollar opportunity.

Source - https://www.artificialintelligence-news.com/news/the-merging-of-ai-and-blockchain-was-inevitable-but-what-will-it-mean/