A New Intelligence Infrastructure: Where AI, Web3 & Cybersecurity Converge

The potential of AI in transforming and empowering human activities is vast. As AI will likely have an impact on all facets of everyday life, it needs the right infrastructure to be deployed with enough scale and safety.

Enter Web3 — a potentially powerful combination with AI that can unlock even greater efficiencies for positive outcomes.

Unleashing the potential of AI — blending data workflows, process automation & cybersecurity.

While AI is an incredibly exciting opportunity, it also creates the need for a new infrastructure in order to deliver the promised positive outcomes while protecting us against new threats:

• Data collection, usage & reward for larger ecosystems: Put simply, the end goal of digital transformation is to evolve a company’s business model with technology. To achieve this, large, varied, high-quality data sets will be needed to empower AI for action. As a consequence, the decision-making and information sharing processes in organizations need to change — from catering to siloed environments to multi-industry data sharing ecosystems that enable a 360 degree view without compromising the “secret sauce”.
• Automation workflow & rules — defined, accepted and implemented with ease and confidence: Many activities and processes will be automated in the future — but in order for these processes to work properly, we’ll need to define and implement them in a more flexible, accurate and automated manner. This has to happen inside corporations, but also between ecosystem players.
• Next-gen fraud & cyber risk — background protection allows creativity to thrive: AI brings a new level of risk with automation across industries and corporate workflows as well as for end users (e.g., deep fakes, next-gen phishing and spam or leaks of critical workflows). This will require an evolution in current, classic cybersecurity methods. The goal is not only to ensure seamless protection, but to foster an environment conducive to productivity, creativity and unhindered thinking.

Laws and regulations frequently lag behind the pace of innovation. And as tech scales, so too does adverse secondary effects on society… all before lawmakers can effectively address the practical challenges. So as technologies such as AI continue to evolve, the digital infrastructure must also. How?

It’s my belief that the convergence of AI, Web3 and cybersecurity on the same intelligence infrastructure will have an important role.

Web3 + AI — creating new ecosystems for creativity & efficiency.

Let’s start with some general background on Web3 — still a very new concept. Unlike traditional centralized systems, Web3 can provide an evolved infrastructure for AI development in a trusted environment that is decentralized, secure and transparent. The key here lies in the capacity to set a trusted environment to share, create, automate and fairly reward contributors.

One significant benefit lies in the potential of open and transparent rings where all transactions and actions are visible, accessible and auditable by any user. Decentralized governance is supposed to prevent single points of failure, reducing the potential for malicious behavior and preventing the control of AI development by single entities. The result is a new opportunity to gather new communities (or ecosystems) of players to build new products and offerings together.

Another important Web3 feature is the implementation of smart contracts — or self-executing agreements where the terms are directly written into lines of code. Web3 enables the use of smart contracts and thus the automation of ethical guidelines for AI models, such as data privacy with the appropriate level of transparency. Those who decide to be part of networks of data exchanges and utilization can maintain their safety even in automated exchanges. Thanks to Web3, the necessary technology is available, allowing CEOs to confidently initiate open transformation and implement new business models that foster enhanced creativity, with AI at the core.

With the foundational building blocks of “Safe Tech” in place, CEOs may be on the brink of pushing the open transformation button.

Web3 + AI creates a flywheel effect — with exponential growth in AI adoption.

AI has the capability to generate hidden processes for automation. However, it requires specific datasets to accomplish this. The good news is that new startups in the field of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) already have access to the software components needed to extract the relevant datasets. Once the AI has envisioned new processes for automation, a significant portion of the implementation process can also be automated on certified infrastructures. Considering this outlook, the potential of automation is reaching unprecedented heights.

Second point I’ll make here — the new AI-driven processes generate new data flows that contribute to the enhancement of AI models, thereby empowering company activities. In this context, Web3 can offer developers access to a vast array of decentralized and non-public data, which is essential for AI to learn and improve. It also addresses the computational demands of AI by leveraging decentralized sources of computing power, enabling developers to train and run AI models without relying on expensive hardware. Coupling RPA, AI and Web3, corporations gain access to better algorithms and can run them on trusted workflows built within their ecosystems.

In summary, AI equips companies with the roadmap and tools to implement new workflows, which are compatible for AI+RPA on the Web3 infrastructure due to its decentralized and trustworthy environment. As more data is collected within this framework, new processes can be discovered and automated.

Web3 + AI leads to next-gen cybersecurity — and a 2nd flywheel.

With the rise of AI and automation, a new set of cyber risks emerges. Consequently, the nature and shape of cybersecurity must evolve. It is no longer solely about defending against malware or visible scams, but also about combating a new generation of threats without impeding the efficiency gains for corporations or the improvement of people’s lives.

Web3, being a decentralized platform built on certified protocols, inherently possesses security advantages. When combined with AI, it has the potential to provide a comprehensive solution to mitigate next-generation risks. While a detailed exploration of the cybersecurity landscape would require a much more extensive report, practical examples can effectively highlight the significance. In this context, we will examine two threats: deep fakes and AI-powered social engineering.

(1) Deep fakes — AI manipulated or synthetic forms of media content (images, videos, audio etc.) that can lead to harmful outcomes such as mis or disinformation, political manipulation, fraud, privacy violations and an overall erosion of trust.

Blockchain technologies enable the creation of immutable records — which includes content and its ownership. So on Web3, by anchoring digital assets and media metadata on the blockchain, it becomes easier to trace the origin and verify the authenticity of content. Now, let’s add in AI to fight fire with fire — algorithms can be trained to recognize patterns and characteristics (visual or audio cues) that indicate the presence of deep fake content. It can also be used to verify the authenticity and integrity of digital content. By utilizing cryptographic algorithms, digital signatures, and decentralized verification mechanisms, Web3 platforms can enhance trust and ensure authenticity of information, media, and transactions, thereby reducing the risk of deep fake manipulation — all without crippling the speed of creativity and productivity gains.

(2) AI-powered social engineering — this has many forms, from more sophisticated and personalized (or conversational) phishing to realistic chatbots, making it harder to distinguish between legitimate and malicious communications.

By integrating AI capabilities into Web3 networks, we can bolster our defenses with things like advanced user authentication for impersonation attempts, behavior-based anomaly detection, NLP-driven content analysis, decentralized threat intelligence and so on.

In summary, cybersecurity is undergoing a necessary transformation to accommodate the advancements in AI and automation while preserving efficiency and fostering new opportunities for creativity. Additionally, this creates a 2nd flywheel effect — with Web3+AI enabling cybersecurity products to become more efficient while propelling the former forward as well.

Parting thoughts — Web3 as the highway for a safe AI revolution

Web3 will enable speed, collaboration, certification, transparency and a degree of decentralization favorable to the development of safe AI. At the same time, AI has the capability to orchestrate the establishment of connections and information sharing for effective action within the Web3 framework. This symbiotic relationship between AI and Web3 not only fuels the advancement of next-generation cybersecurity but also fosters its own growth.

Through Web3, developers, corporations, and various stakeholders can collaborate on projects, algorithms and ecosystem processes, leading to accelerated advancements in AI with speed and scale.

While Web3 is widely known for its promise in decentralization and transparency —importantly, it could also be the highway for a safe AI revolution.