AI vs. Crypto?
I have engaged in some discussions about AI being "better" than crypto in the last couple of weeks. Let's settle this down.
Hello, hypers!
As you read, I have seen some hostility between Crypto and AI advocates. I’m not saying it has escalated to an Internet Civil War but it has given me a lot to think about. For example:
How can we compare AI and Crypto?
Which one is “better for us”?
What are the goals of each one?
Since I’m a big fan of both technologies and have studied and worked on both, I’m more than happy to discuss this today.
Note: With Crypto, I’m referring to the whole ecosystem based in public blockchains. Projects like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and all the protocols and applications around them.
What are the goals of Crypto and AI?
Let’s begin with this one. I think this is crucial to determine how can we compare both technologies. If they have some common goals, we could compare them regarding the achievement of those goals. But, spoiler alert, this is not the case (so far).
We develop AI to leverage human capabilities. When a machine does a task for us or helps us in doing a task, we are more productive. We produce more, and that’s almost always a good thing. Also, machines can be better than us at doing such tasks because they can be stronger, faster, and more accurate than humans. With Artificial Intelligence machines can perform tasks that require some degree of, well… intelligence.
We develop Crypto to leverage human ownership. I like to see crypto as the next level of Liberalism. The dynamics of our world require trust. We need to trust other humans so we can assume things are going to work. We trust humans when we give them our data. When we sign a contract, we trust the counterpart to be compliant and, otherwise, we trust a judge will be assuring that compliance. We trust Governments and economic entities will provide us with peace and security. Crypto aims to substitute all this trust with ownership. We own our data, technology assures contract immutability and compliance, and we own our money no matter what.
Both goals have dark sides, we have experienced it already and I’m sure that we’ll be experiencing it for a long time. But I think both goals are valid and bring benefit to our society. Also, it is not clear whether these goals have any intersection, or if there is anything they share. I would say that, as of now, we can state that there are no common goals. So let's see how we can compare both technologies.
How can we compare AI and Crypto?
It is important to note that, since AI and Crypto don’t share a common goal, it is not clear which of them will benefit us more. It might be (I think it is) meaningless to ask which will be more beneficial for humanity. While some humans will consider the Crypto goals a priority, others would say that AI goals are the most important.
So, it seems that the only way to compare them is by how much value each one has delivered to humanity so far. We are not focusing on the future but on the present. This comparison could be as well very hard or even meaningless if both technologies had advanced at the same pace, but this is not the case.
AI has been advancing very fast since the beginning of our century. On the other hand, Crypto is still facing problems with adoption, and scammers at all levels have been projecting a negative image of the entire ecosystem. AI is enabling us to create amazing products and make all kinds of improvements in the industry and academia. AI is succeeding, Crypto still seems to be in its infancy.
This is the comparison that makes sense to me, and AI wins by far. But let’s take into account the context of this “AI victory”. We are not saying “AI is more important, let’s forget about Crypto and focus only on AI!”, or anything similar. We are acknowledging that AI is a mature field while Crypto still has a long way to go.
Conclusions
Comparing and discussing is awesome. It is an opportunity to question ourselves about our beliefs. We should always take this opportunity because it is the best way to grow as human beings. But it is important to do so always from an objective perspective and accept that the image we have of something can be very distorted.
People that only read about AI taking over their jobs or lives are unable to see the big opportunities and benefits of AI. The same happens with people that have been scammed or that only hear about crypto-scams. We should be open to going deeper and challenging our own positions.
The quality of an idea is determined by the context. In the 80s, Expert Systems were delivering a lot more value than Neural Networks. We didn’t have powerful microprocessors and GPUs as we do now. Imagine the whole scientific community had forgotten the Neural Network idea back then. AI is at this point because society and technology are ready for it. Maybe the time for Crypto is still to come.
I hope you have enjoyed this discussion of AI vs. Crypto and that it has motivated you to read and learn new things. If you liked this post consider sharing it with your peers, reading previous posts, and following me in my socials.
See you!