Italy, AI and its role in society- how we use the tech is what matters most

The last few weeks have been eventful with AI news, sharing below a few thoughts and take-aways on what's happening. Before we start, some context on NEAR and AI.

NEAR's roots are deeply linked with AI -- NEAR? began its life as an AI company, taking its name from Ray Kurzweil’s famous book "The Singularity Is Near". Illia and Alex, the cofounders of NEAR, both came from backgrounds in AI and Illia is a co-authors of one of the most read papers in the field, “Attention Is All You Need”. Increasingly the future of what we do at NEAR intertwines with AI.

Italy bans ChatGPT

Last week Italy became the first Western country to ban the use of ChatGPT based on privacy concerns, which has set alarm bells ringing. While I can understand the government's worries - as exposing private data is certainly risky and not in society’s best interests, this does not seem like a viable long-term solution. After all, technology like AI can’t really “be stopped” and it’s not inherently good or bad: it's how we use it that matters most.?

Along with developing technologies that enhance our quality of life we also need policies and procedures to ensure they respect human rights and individual privacy. Italy’s decision to ban ChatGPT not only highlights its critical absence of policy aimed at mitigating AI’s risk to humanity but also shines a light on the need to do more to find a framework that doesn’t stifle innovation.?

Italy isn’t alone in taking a drastic approach to AI’s progression. Elon Musk and other AI leaders made headlines last week by signing a petition calling for a pause on the development of AI technology until we fully understand its ramifications. Some might argue this call to action is a critical step towards building trust in technology - and at the end of the day – it’s all about trust.?

But stopping AI innovation in its tracks isn’t the answer (and let’s ask ourselves if it’s even possible?). What we need is more transparency, traceability and accountability - and one of the best ways to achieve this is through blockchain.?

Enters blockchain and the BOS

Blockchain allows for secure, transparent, and decentralised transactions and Near’s evolution to becoming the Blockchain Operating System (BOS) will make it easier than ever for developers to create decentralised applications while ensuring interoperability and cross-chain compatibility. Embedded AI will be a big part of the system’s make up and we believe that this will offer tremendous opportunities for our community to design a better future for our society.

An AI enabled BOS is a significant milestone in the evolution of blockchain technology that will pave the way for more? innovations. The potential applications of blockchain technology are vast and varied, and its use cases extend far beyond just cryptocurrency. Its inherent security, transparency, and decentralisation qualities have made it an attractive solution for different industries from supply chain management and healthcare to voting systems. AI can help us optimise everything from traffic conditions to medical procedures, and automate processes which have previously required countless hours of human labour. Seen in this way, AI and blockchain can contribute to making the world more fair and open by giving people access to knowledge, resources, and capabilities that would have previously required teams of people and significant budgets.

The Argument for Open Source

As Illia Polosukhin, our Near co-founder says, "open source always wins." It's a philosophy that has been proven time and time again and should also be applied to AI development and blockchain as well. The more transparent we are about our technology the less we have to fear it.?

Open source is gaining steam and being embraced by more and more companies -? even social giants like Twitter, who are opening up their code to the community. Open source is not just a philosophy but an active movement that continues to gain more momentum. It is more secure and transparent than closed-source code and allows developers to collaborate and build on each other's work, as well as provide checks and balances, leading to more robust and reliable software.?

This is because when developers work together and share their code, they can catch bugs and vulnerabilities more quickly, making open-source software often more secure than closed-source software. But open source is about more than security – it’s fundamentally about collaboration. When developers collaborate on open-source projects, they can learn from each other and build upon each other's work, ultimately leading to more innovative and robust software.

When big business meets AI

While Italy clamps down on AI, many big businesses are taking a different approach and recognising its potential, as demonstrated by Bloomberg’s announcement of the development of BloombergGPT, its own 50-billion parameter large language model. It has been specifically trained on a wide variety of financial information to support a broad spectrum of natural language processing (NLP) duties within the financial sector. As corporations? start to actively and publicly leverage AI, it's crucial to ensure that AI is used for the benefit of all and not just a select few.?

We still also need to promote ethical and responsible AI development. This includes ensuring that the data used to train AI models is representative and free from bias, that AI systems are transparent and accountable, and that safeguards are in place to prevent the misuse of AI. The responsible development and use of AI will require collaboration between businesses, governments, and society. True collaboration will ensure AI is used for the benefit of all and not just a select few who can afford to leverage it the most.?

AI Investment must continue

Halting AI development isn’t the answer - nor is curtailing investment at this critical point in time. The world is only just starting to see how AI has the potential to transform our society for the better – used in the right way,? it can help us solve complex problems, improve healthcare, and enhance our quality of life.?

The United States, China, and the United Kingdom are the countries that are currently investing the most in AI research and development - and we hope other nations will follow suit - in a responsible and ethical manner.

Only then can we fully harness the transformative power of AI and pave the way for a brighter and more prosperous future. Blockchain has a role to play, and it’s time to think about leveraging the tools we have to create a safer and better future.