Humans.ai is setting up the first Web3 AI ecosystem powered by blockchain technology that aims to democratize the use of artificial intelligence by bridging the gap between AI researchers and developers and AI consumers, everyday people who do not have a technical background.
One of the first researchers to join the Humans ecosystem is Gianluca Truda, Machine Learning researcher with a background in Computer Science and Genetics from Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Nederland. Gianluca’s research primarily focuses on Biomedical Data Mining, Differential Privacy and Generative Models, but in the last couple of months, he has expanded his area of focus, collaborating with startups in AI and Biotech.
An AI researcher examines Humans AI’s technology
Gianluca Truda joined us at the Humans.ai headquarters for a conversation focused on artificial intelligence and synthetic media generation and how these technologies seem to have brought science fiction into the real world, particularly in the visual media sphere. AI, as Gianluca points out, is slowly eating the world in a similar fashion that the Internet has done before in the Web2 era.
But for AI to truly unleash its full potential, it needs to tap into the powerful characteristics of the Web3 paradigm: privacy, decentralization, and economic incentive systems. In his opinion, the confluence of AI, synthetic media and Web3 will set the stage for an ecosystem of AIs that have the notion of ownership and of economic trade where data and AI models become first-class citizens, with mechanisms in place that prevents their malicious exploitation.
Humans.ai
While discussing the technology developed by Humans.ai, Gianluca exhibited genuine enthusiasm, stating that it addresses the massive gap between AI developers and consumers. Using blockchain as an underlying foundation for artificial intelligence means that the valuable benefits of Web3 permeate into AI, revitalizing how this technology is developed, deployed and executed.
AI researcher: AI is the new internet
Artificial intelligence is a critical component of Web2 that helps people who are browsing the web with suggestions and recommendations based on their previous searches and pattern analysis that determine their preferences. It’s safe to say that AI and Web2 have thrived and grown together over the years, changing forever how we conduct business and interact with each other. But the centralized nature of Web2 has raised a series of questions regarding how artificial intelligence is developed, deployed, governed and executed.
Humans.ai has taken it upon itself to build a multifaceted ecosystem that addresses some of the major dysfunctions present in the current AI status quo. The solution proposed by Humans.ai fuses artificial intelligence and blockchain, a technology that will play a pivotal role in the upcoming Web3 revolution, to set the foundation for an ecosystem that will unite AI developers, researchers and consumers. As AI is slowly consuming the world, enriching industries and businesses, Humans.ai has made it its mission to assist the transition of artificial intelligence, AI models and AI-based solutions from the centralized Web2 domain to a decentralized paradigm, where AI becomes a democratized asset that is constantly monitored by real humans.
The motto “It takes humanity to raise an AI” perfectly illustrates the human-centric philosophy that lies at the core of Humans’ approach to building a next-generation blockchain platform that brings together an ecosystem of stakeholders around the use of AI to create at scale. The ecosystem envisioned by Humans.ai combines a library of AI tools into a creative studio suite where users will be able to pick and choose as they bring their ideas to life. Individuals are empowered to create and own their digital likenesses, which may be used to create new digital assets. Synthetic media, AI apps, and other digital assets employ blockchain technology to generate AI Non-Fungible Tokens, a new asset class capable of guaranteeing transparency, accountability, and long-term governance.
AI researchers are the central innovators who make their AI models available in the Humans.ai ecosystem. Among the first AI researchers to adhere to the vision promoted by Humans.ai is Gianluca Truda, a Machine Learning researcher, who believes that the core values of Web3, privacy, decentralization governance, and scalability, make it an ideal home for generative AI. During his visit to the Humans.ai headquarters, we had the chance to talk with Gianluca, who shared his views on the synergies between AI, synthetic data and blockchain, all while showcasing his enthusiasm regarding Humans.ai’s vision.But before delving deeper into the topic, some introductions are in order.
“My name is Gianluca Truda, and I’m an ML researcher. I’ve got a background in artificial and security with applications to biomedical data and other challenging or messy data sets of that kind. In the last couple of months, I have been working on building my own startup within the AI and biotech intersection, as well as collaborating on various projects related to that. A big focus of mine has been the problem of synthetic data sets and generating synthetic data with differential privacy”, outlined Gianluca while talking briefly about himself and his work.
AI researcher: AI explodes in the synthetic media generation
Humans.ai is mixing the innovative fields of artificial intelligence and nonfungible tokens to create AI NFTs, a new type of asset class that enables anyone to own a piece of AI and determine how it will be used. With the technology developed by Humans.ai, NFTs are transformed from static art form to complex instrument that enables the creation of AI that generates real-world value.
The AI NFTs developed by Humans.ai are neural networks that are encapsulated into an NFT to enhance its governance, management and usage. Humans.ai provides a breakthrough technology that allows people to rely on neural networks as a way to generalize knowledge from data sets. By incorporating AI and governance capabilities into NFTs, they can evolve from basic proofs of ownership to intelligent, self-governing forms of ownership that enable richer experiences and a higher utility for researchers, artists, AI creators, NFT creators and consumers.
Humans.ai
“Under the Web2 paradigm, we’ve seen that software has eaten the whole world. Software applications have gone to every industry, and I think AI is going to be doing the same thing. It’s going to eat every industry and enrich them in a way that we have seen with Web2 and the Internet. One area where we’ve already seen AI explode is in synthetic media generation, where what seemed like science fiction a few years ago is now a reality that everyone can see, particularly with visual media. And I think along with this explosion, we’re seeing the rise of Web3 and all the valuable properties that it offers when it comes to privacy, decentralization, and economic incentive systems”, thinks Gianluca Truda.
AI researcher: Humans makes AI simple for people to access
Humans.ai is working to expand its blockchain platform, a framework tailored to mitigate some of the most pressing issues that revolve around the execution, monetization and governance of AI. But this is just the tip of the technological iceberg, as the Humans blockchain pushes beyond the limitations associated with traditional blockchains, like the lack of interoperability, to bring the execution and management of artificial intelligence into the Web3 era.
The Humans blockchain is envisioned as a complex ecosystem which will make smart contracts smarter, bringing them into the Web3 era. By leveraging CosmWasm, the Humans Blockchain is restructuring the concept of artificial intelligence by enabling them to interact with each other through smart contracts. This modular approach to AI and smart contracts empowers users, allowing them to combine multiple AI NFTs to create new AI products, opening new windows of opportunity that can be explored not only by content creators but also by researchers and AI developers.
AI NFTs are unique because they encapsulate digital DNA, which can be represented by a voice, face, posture, way of being, and other biometrics, which can act as the building blocks for the creation of new synthetic media or AI products. Content creators can combine multiple AI NFTs and the digital DNA inside of them to create unique content. For example, a user can use a voice from an AI NFT and combine it with another AI NFT that has a face encapsulated in it to create a custom digital avatar that uses the traits from both AI NFTs. Synthetic media is only the tip of the iceberg, as the AI NFTs designed by Humans.ai have a modular approach, meaning that the AI models they encapsulate can interact and combine with each other to generate new business momentum and value.
“What Humans.ai is building would really allow people like myself who can develop these ML approaches, these AI approaches to put those as modules and make it as simple as an API call for people to access. Along with that, from all the benefits of Web3 — with NFTs, you have the concept of ownership with smart contracts, you have governance which allows you to put limits on who and why and how people can use these different tools. So, it’s allowing this sort of plug-and-play ability to upload a model into an entire ecosystem. With that comes the ability to have this almost Lego-like interaction where people, who are non-experts, can combine different tools on the Humans.ai platform to build things that we never thought would be possible at a scale and pace that has never been seen before in human history. I think that in the very near future, we potentially are going to see the rates of progress within the deployment of AI and the concepts of data markets completely being revolutionized and reinvented. I think our imagination is the limit right now. Once this technology is available, it’s going to change things at a pace that no one has ever seen before”, underlined Gianluca while talking about the technology developed by Humans.ai.
AI researcher: AI and Web3 grow together very synergistically in Humans’ ecosystem
At the centre of the Humans.ai ecosystem is the Proof of Human (PoH) mechanism, a complex blockchain-based governance, consensus and verification system that ensures that every AI NFT is backed by a human decision. Through PoH, humans leverage their biometric data to prove that a specific AI is still under close biological supervision. Humans.ai empowers people to participate in the governance and management of any AI, essentially making sure that the objective of the AI is aligned with the human’s objective.
An integral component of the Humans.ai blockchain, PoH acts as a governance, consensus and verification system, which helps ensure that behind every AI NFT, there is a human decision. Simply put, PoH is a complex and versatile mechanism that ensures three key functions related to AI NFTs: governance, consensus and verification.
To ensure the governance of an AI NFT, Humans.ai utilizes Proof of Human to confirm that behind every request made towards an AI model, there have been multiple digital signatures of real people. The digital signatures in question are generated through a mix of different data such as private keys and biometric data (fingerprints, heartbeats, retina scans, face recognition etc.)
Commenting on the union between Web3 technologies and artificial intelligence, Gianluca pointed out the synergies between the two and how they can address the issue of ownership “I see this beautiful pairing with what is happening in synthetic media AI and what is happening in Web3, to be able to build the future in a way where the ecosystem of various AIs can have the notion of ownership, of economic trade where data and models are first-class citizens in some kind of ecosystem and where all of the core values of the Web3 paradigm enable synthetic media to be not only safer because it is a double-edged sword, but also to scale at a level that it can’t under the previous existing Web2 paradigms. I think that is the beginning of what will be a very interesting seed for the future, and it will generate this flywheel effect that will help both AI and Web3 to grow together very synergistically.”
AI Researcher: The idea of having AI on the blockchain is rooted in an economic rationale
As our interview drew towards its end, our visitor offered a short perspective on the technology that Humans.ai is building and how it will impact artificial intelligence as a whole and the people who are working in this field.
“I’m very excited to see what Humans.ai is working on. In conversations with the team and from all of the engagements that I had with Humans.ai, I’m very excited about the notion of building a true ecosystem where you can have components that have value. So, data is going to be a liquid commodity that can be traded and the value of data can be realized by all the different parties, whether you’re a data consumer or a data producer. And this thinking extends the idea of having AI on the blockchain. Why that is cool and why that is such an exciting prospect for someone who is a developer and researcher within machine learning is because there is this massive gap between what it takes to develop a model that works and does something really powerful and a deployment of that into the marketplace where it becomes something that people can use to build projects whether it’s something that can earn revenue or whether it’s something that can grow”, stated Gianluca Truda.
