The Ecosystem of Ecosystems
How the Decentralized AI Alliance (DAIA) will achieve its mission to democratize AI.
Think Different
Something very curious happened on the 6th of December, 2016. On that day, Apple pledged that it was going to be more open in AI.
The famously secretive company announced that it would allow its AI teams to publish research papers and that it would spend time talking to academics. In sync with its announcement, on the 22nd of December, 2016, Apple published its first AI research paper. Then, in July of 2017, it launched a machine learning blog to share the company’s findings.
What motivated Apple to think differently?
In short: Apple’s focus on secrecy was hurting its recruiting efforts for AI talent. As we discussed in one of SingularityNET’s previous articles, AI talent is rare. AI as a field is dominated by academics and researchers. These individuals want to join corporations but still retain the freedom to publish their research and discuss their work — something that they could not do at Apple.
As Noah Goodman, a Stanford University professor phrased it: “We come from a community where we share ideas and get credit for it and a lot of us would be very unhappy to give that up.”
As the other tech companies showed advances in AI and threatened to leave Apple behind, Apple had to think differently or risk missing out on the most important technology of our time.
After making its pledge to be more open, Apple joined the Partnership on AI — created by Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft — as a founding member.
The Partnership on AI, according to its website, was “established to study and formulate best practices on AI technologies, to advance the public’s understanding of AI, and to serve as an open platform for discussion and engagement about AI and its influences on people and society.”
Currently, the Partnership on AI has more than 70 partners, with many non-profits such as UNDP, UNICEF, Wikimedia and OpenAI. It represents a collective effort by a very influential group of nonprofits and for-profit entities to tackle the ethical issues of AI, spread awareness about its concepts and to initiate a conversation on its most critical issues. Apple’s inclusion has strengthened the partnership.
Don’t Be Evil
Apple’s decision to be less secretive and be more open in AI proves that the for-profits corporations do not operate in a vacuum. There are forces within them, and in the outside world, that can motivate them to think and act differently.
Recently, an open letter to Microsoft was penned by the “Employees of Microsoft.” In the letter a simple request is made: “Microsoft, don’t bid on JEDI.”
The JEDI stands for Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, a $10 Billion contract that Microsoft is bidding on. The employees of Microsoft write: “The contract is massive in scope and shrouded in secrecy, which makes it nearly impossible to know what we as workers would be building.”
Whether or not Microsoft backs down from such a lucrative contract is still to be seen, the open letter draws its inspiration from the successful campaign by the employees of Google against the Project Maven — which, incidentally, was supposed to pave the way for Google to win the JEDI contract.
While every corporation is expected to be ethical, Google set its own ideological and ethical standard through its famous unofficial motto of “don’t be evil.” Although Google quietly removed the motto from its code of conduct this year — the motto has been deeply ingrained in the company’s culture and has shaped the public’s perception of Google.
To ask for-profit corporations to eschew profits would be asking them to go against their very nature. Even if they pledge not to be evil, they remove such promises from their communications eventually. However, we also know that the corporations do not operate in isolation.
In today’s hyperconnected world, almost all companies have realized the importance of managing perceptions. It is crucial therefore to distinguish between PR stunts and ideological ambitions. As Google’s decision to not to renew Project Maven and to not contend for the JEDI contract has shown, such ideological ambitions can come to shape the culture and evolution of a company.
So what is the general public to think of when Microsoft says it plans to democratize AI? Is it just another case of management of perceptions or are they sincere? How can we know that Google will follow through its promise to make the world a better place through the democratization of AI? Does Amazon share the same noble ambition of democratizing AI or is it just a PR stunt?
Facta Non Verba
Acts, not words. To find out which companies are serious about their promises to democratize AI, we only have to look at their actions.
Despite its pledge, as of now, Apple has only published eleven research papers in its blog. One can argue it is a small step in the right direction. Microsoft’s recent decision to open source 60,000 patents and join the Open Invention Network is commendable and is a far cry from its early days of resisting the open source software movement. Even though Google has backed out of Project Maven, it still plans to go ahead with its decision of building a censored search engine for China — despite protests from its employees. Meanwhile, Amazon promises unwavering commitment to its police and military clients that are using its AI technology.
It is clear that each company is going through a journey of its own and that dramatic changes in the policies of such corporations can occur within a short period. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the impulse to democratize AI is there. Which raises the question: how can we empower and help the for-profit corporations in their journey to democratize AI?
On the 22nd of May, 2018, SingularityNET and AI Decentralized announced the creation of a new industry group, the Decentralized AI Alliance (DAIA).
DAIA’s Mission is “to support the creation of decentralized, democratically controlled and open AI technologies, which dramatically lower the costs and barriers of creating and using AI technologies, encourage broad participation in the development of AI as its capability advances, and encourage the application of AI for broad benefit.”
What makes DAIA different is that it is composed of Open Access Networks — networks that are not controlled by any one central entity and are governed by their communities. It is in the DNA of such networks to be democratic and open, to not privilege a few over many and to allow for collaboration amongst all of their participants.
For instance, one way to utilize the native token of SingularityNET (AGI) is through the function of governance. The token holders will be able to vote on the evolution of the network. Anton Kolonin, a senior AI researcher of SingularityNET, recently published an article that goes over the mechanisms of such governance: Liquid Democracy for Distributed AI Systems. The token holders will be able to decide, among other things, which benevolent project to incentivize, which AI Agent deserves a higher reputation, how the network allocates its resources and what the laws of the network will be. They will be able to govern, in essence, the collective intelligence of the global AI network.
The most important aspect of open access networks is that anyone can join and participate in them without seeking permission or paying commissions to a privileged entity.
While the open access networks are decentralized, the centralized entities such nonprofits and for-profit corporations can participate in them. The centralized for-profit corporations can, for instance, offer their AI related services over SingularityNET without divulging any sensitive information, paying any commissions or incurring any other hidden costs. The nature of SingularityNET is such that it will amplify the connectivity of these corporations, without extracting rent from them. Therefore, to access SingularityNET and participate in the network will be in the financial interests of the AI Service Providers.
The correct lens with which to view SingularityNET, therefore, is not as a competitor against the existing AI services providers, but as a network that enables such entities to participate in the democratization of AI. SingularityNET’s decentralized nature, zero costs of participation and amplification of connectivity means those that will participate in this global network, will advance the cause of true democratization of AI services.
Each open access network is an ecosystem of its own, with a passionate community governing it. As these ecosystems come together under the DAIA, an ecosystem of ecosystems is created.
Due to the alignment of economic and ideological incentives, there will be active sharing, openness, and collaboration within the overall ecosystem of DAIA. As the ecosystem of ecosystems comes into form, with each ecosystem contributing to the democratization of AI in its own way — we will see an unstoppable march toward the democratization of AI. Those who promise to democratize AI can either participate in this ecosystem or stand against the movement to democratize AI. The choice is theirs.
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 tech giants 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, are the enabling layer for such a democratization process.
To learn more about us and inquire for memberships, please contact us at team@daia.foundation
Text by Ahmad Matyana
