The rise of AI has been imminent for quite some time. What was lacking were commercialized products that are relevant for average users. However, 2023 seems to have offered the first real glimpses of a change on this path — many believe that this will be the breakthrough year for AI as more applications and AI utilities become embedded in our day-to-day lives.
With the increased use of AI-based bots, users around the world are relentlessly testing and improving these products – and AI in general. And when it comes to crypto, bots have always been part of the picture. With all these recent developments in mind, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that AI has an undeniable influence on our daily lives.
The rise of a technology like AI, which reduces manual human effort, is probably the next step in human evolution. AI can help bring improvements to various facets of life, and the possibilities are endless. Nevertheless, the drawbacks – and any necessary steps to curb these drawbacks – should also not go overlooked.
Bots that utilize AI and machine learning technologies have been used for various purposes within the crypto industry. Anyone with even a superficial interaction with the space will have come across trading bots, anti-spam bots, or similar others that offer unique utilities for users. And with the advent of Web3, the dependency on bots and AI within the crypto industry is bound to increase.
The utilization of AI and its related technology should collectively be beneficial for the crypto community. However, since every coin has two sides, we should always “hope for the best and plan for the worst.”
So what could go wrong with AI or bot usage on Web3 or within crypto communities?
Fundamentally, Web3 is more decentralized and democratic than its predecessors. And these inherent properties enable Web3 platforms to ensure that all value created through these platforms will be shared equally by creators, content-makers, and users without any discrimination or bias towards one party.
Imagine a video-sharing platform that viewers can use to earn tokens for the time they spend on the platform and the work they do to suggest improvements to the overall working of the platform.
As mentioned earlier, an ideal Web3 platform would treat all parties equally. In such an ideal scenario, everyone associated with the platform will have equal stakes on the platform, making it truly decentralized.
However, an ideal scenario is often not the reality. Bots or AI programs created by bad actors, which can mimic human behavior, can take advantage of this parity and skew the stakes of the platform in their favor. Such behavior can distort the decentralization of a platform and tip the balance toward centralization.
Added to that, by gaining an unfair advantage on a platform, exploiters can theoretically influence voting and gain an unfair advantage over the governance rights of other users, making the system even more biased.
Thus, bots and AI programs have the potential to dismantle the two core properties of Web3, which would effectively take it back to Web2.
Web3 users and platforms can win the race before it even starts by not allowing bots to compete with real human users. To achieve this, platforms may need to employ a decentralized human-proof verification process: Only users who pass the verification as real humans should be allowed to share the value of the platform and subsequently take part in its governance.
A decentralized identity ecosystem like the SelfKey ecosystem can help Web3 users and platforms distinguish humans from bots. Users who verify their identity once will be able to use their verified identity across Web3 using NFTs backed by Soulbound NFT technology.
In this way, the SelfKey ecosystem can keep bots in check, allowing the technology to be used for its benefits, and giving peace of mind to users and platforms alike.
The AI revolution is here, and like any other technological advancement that can help humanity, we will need to embrace it. However, the exploitation of AI for unfair advantages on new-age crypto and Web3 platforms needs to be kept in check to promote a more decentralized digital environment.
Recent internet history has shown that humans often cannot successfully compete with bots, as they are constantly active and evolving. This doesn’t mean that bots or AI are fundamentally bad technological advancements. In fact, in most cases, it’s quite the opposite: AI is and will play a more active part in our digital lives, performing countless functions that most humans would either be incapable of or unwilling to perform.
It is foolish to fear AI and attempt to arrest its growth. However, communities need to work on solutions to avoid exploits by bad actors who can wield the power of AI for unfair, biased, and centralized benefits. If we don’t, humans will soon be competing against AI bots seeking to skew decentralized systems in their creators’ favor.
A decentralized identity ecosystem like the SelfKey ecosystem can effectively allow human participants to verify their identity and use their verified identity across Web3. This solution does not sideline or ban the usage of AI but allows Web3 platforms to distinguish bots from humans.
AI technology will constantly evolve, which may one day make bots indistinguishable from humans. However, what defines us as humans is our identity. Using projects like SelfKey, we can use this unique attribute to distinguish ourselves on Web3.
It is imperative that Web3 adopts a decentralized human verification system, much like the SelfKey ecosystem, to fight against the potential threat of AI to the fundamental properties of decentralization and democracy that are embedded in Web3.
Identity verification using the SelfKey ecosystem can make AI and bots work for humans – not the other way.
Join the SelfKey ecosystem now!
