Exploring the role of Ubuntu in transforming how we evaluate AI
Ubuntu
“In Africa, there is a concept known as ‘Ubuntu’ — the profound sense that we are human only through the humanity of others.”(Nelson Mandela)
An anthropologist once visited a tribe somewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa to study their culture and values. As part of his study, the man placed a basket of fruits near a tree and told a group of children that whoever gets to it first, keeps the basket. The outcome of this game was a surprising and spontaneous act of altruism where all the children held hands and started to run together towards the tree.
This story of the children refusing to race and compete with each other highlights the essence of Ubuntu.
The word Ubuntu itself can be broadly translated as “humanity” and is often considered to mean “I am because we are.” The philosophy of Ubuntu originates from the Zulu and Xhosa cultures and consists of the belief that we can achieve harmony and happiness for all only through cooperation with others.
So what does Ubuntu have to do with Artificial Intelligence?
In the context of the Decentralized Artificial Intelligence Alliance (DAIA), cooperation is also more than an ordinary concept; it is a way of doing things, sharing a mission and a vision.
Industry 4.o
The nation-states of the world have often competed with each other to gain the first mover advantage or to be the dominant player in a specific field. In the twentieth century, we saw the nation-states competing with each other to become the first nuclear power and then, later on, we saw Russia and the United States race with each other to land the first man on the moon. The race for domination in AI has already started.
The immense potential of AI, its unique nature, means that we are at the dawn of a technological revolution that will fundamentally change the way we live, work and relate with each other. In its scale, scope, and complexity, this transformation will be different from anything that human beings have experienced before — we will, in essence, go through the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
This revolution — also called the Industry 4.o — is preceded by three transformative historical processes. The first one marked the creation of mechanized manual production between 1760 and 1830. The second, around 1850, brought us electricity and allowed for mass manufacturing. The third happened in the mid-20th century with the arrival of electronics, information technology, and telecommunications.
In this next process that we are witnessing the coming together of several technologies that will complement each other and create immense change in our society. These technologies include artificial intelligence, nanotechnologies, neurotechnologies, robots, blockchain, biotechnology, energy storage systems, drones, 3D printers and more.
It cannot be denied that the race for dominance in AI is heating up, with Vladimir Putin claiming that whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world (a new twist in the Heartland theory of John Mackinder). However, it is equally undeniable that AI has the potential to be used in ways that enrich human lives and our environment.
For instance, beneficial AI applications in schools, homes, and hospitals are already growing at an accelerated pace. In schools, AI technology can help (among other things) in the identification of the emotion and metacognitive states of students — which is useful to adapt learning methods. In our homes, we have an increasing variety of voice-controlled smart devices that interact with us and are interlinked with each other. These smart home assistants strive to perform the routine and mundane tasks for us — regulating the room temperature, turning off the lights, turning on the coffee maker, ordering groceries, etc. In the hospitals, AI is helping to diagnose diseases and to optimize care and allocation of resources.
The potential of Artificial Intelligence is enormous, and the examples above highlight a fraction of its capacities. With Blockchain and AI technologies complementing each other, the positive capacities of AI could be further amplified. Most importantly, decentralization of AI also enables us to re-evaluate the success of its applications. At DAIA, we believe that the success of AI applications should be measured primarily by the value they create for sentient beings.
AI Meets Blockchain
AI and Blockchain are two extreme sides of the technology spectrum; the former promotes centralized intelligence in data platforms, the latter promotes decentralized applications in an open access environment.
Through the creation of an alliance of serious participants in the AI & blockchain ecosystems, DAIA aims to ensure universal and affordable access to AI technologies for everyone and to solve common challenges collectively. DAIA believes that blockchain and AI are a perfect match, it believes in utilizing AI for the benefit of humanity and it believes in co-creation rather than competition.
Conceptualized by Simone Giacomelli, Toufi Saliba, and Dr. Ben Goertzel, and now formalized into an organization, DAIA expects to assume increasing influence — serving to amplify and focus the power of its members in the blockchain and AI worlds. DAIA was established to collaborate on standards and shared projects, to discuss common needs and to tackle current issues such as wealth inequality and data privacy.
DAIA has the potential to become extremely important in the movement to utilize AI for the greater good, in a decentralized and widely participatory environment. To create this environment, DAIA plans to attract major projects in the AI and blockchain space to funnel the interest of AI developers and users towards decentralized AI technologies.
DAIA will raise cooperation on software and hardware projects by supporting its members in the development of practical tools benefiting the whole community. It will coordinate the definition of protocols, ontologies and other standards. It will organize events and support members on IP and legal matters. It will also partner with investment funds and nonprofit entities for the allocation of resources to decentralized AI — assisting with sourcing and more. Furthermore, the use of decentralized AI technologies and big data can improve policy and decision-making.
We believe that DAIA can maximize the positive impact and scope of Artificial Intelligence. It has the potential to ensure that no one is left behind. By providing everyone with the ability to innovate and adapt in a decentralized environment, we can expect a significant increase in the number of AI applications and innovations.
Like any other collection of techniques, skills, methods, and processes, AI has the potential to be used for positive or negative purposes. We believe the philosophy of Ubuntu highlights the need and value of cooperation. By seeking to share openly and democratizing the most powerful technology of our time, we can allow every society and individual to improve their conditions. The true potential of AI can only be actualized through co-creation and cooperation. So we invite everyone to hold hands with us and run together in the race for dominance in AI.
Let us all come together through DAIA and embrace the philosophy of Ubuntu!
Text by Camila Froede
How Can You Get Involved?
The vision of DAIA is to foster a world where AI technologies and associated data are made open with decentralized, democratic control for the benefit of all sentient beings.
The immense potential of AI means that it can either increase the inequalities of our societies or liberate us from numerous sufferings. We believe the best way forward is to come together and work practically toward creating a better future. We see a massive potential for evolution in the established centralized corporations. We believe these corporations can contribute immensely toward making the vision of DAIA a reality.
DAIA welcomes the participation of those corporations that are sincere about their aim and goal of democratizing AI. The open access networks that have come together to form DAIA, such as SingularityNET, Dbrain, Toda, are the enabling layer for such a democratization process.
To learn more and to inquire about how to join us, please contact us at team@daia.foundation.
