Dr.
Ben Goerzel, and Dr. David Hanson, of Hanson Robotics, have worked in
the field of Artificial intelligence for many years and were recently
in the news when they introduced Hanson’s humanoid robot Sophia.
They
propose to use a network (SyngularityNET) to make Artificial General
Intelligence (AGI) available worldwide by using the blockchain, and
built on Ethereum smart contracts. They envision an “open market”
of AI solutions available to anyone who needs them.
However,
several issues seem to be insurmountable using current blockchain
technology.
For
example, end-user AGI devices (Agents) will need information that
includes code and data objects. These may be many terabytes of
information. This information may need to be continuously updated,
and must be made available in real time.
Blockchain
requirements for AGI are conceptually similar to other general
distributed applications (GApps). That is, most applications need to
solve the CARS problems: Communication, Addressability
and unique identification, Replication of data, and Security.
-
The communication problem has been solved by the Internet and throughput continues to improve.
-
The addressability of devices, on the Internet, is centralized and subject to attacks. Furthermore, the unique identity of devices and users is not guaranteed and applications must have their own authorization procedures that often involve disclosure of personal information.
The current public crypto-networks are essentially anonymous and have no way of identifying and addressing devices and users. -
The replication of data is tackled by current crypto-networks, but they have scalability, throughput and cost problems.
-
The security problem is solved by crypto-networks through encryption techniques.
So,
“the blockchain” (the term most often used to describe the state
of the art in the field of crypto-networks) at this time can score at
best two and a half out of four.
Probably
for this reason the SingularityNet project already plans to move away
from Ethereum to a more advanced crypto-network.
Furthermore,
SingularityNet wants to achieve their objective with “near zero
transaction cost”. For this reason they are looking for a
crypto-network with a new, much less expensive, or free, consensus
mechanism.
New
generation crypto-networks will need to solve satisfactorily all the
above requirements before they can support general distributed
applications.
Ethereum
smart contracts (DApps), are objects running on the blockchain. They
use the blockchain for every elementary operation. They can be found
on the blockchain by looking for a hash of their code. This is a very
limited and expensive solution, as we pointed out in a previous
article (
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/where-gapps-bitcoin-ethereum-giuseppe-a-gori/
). For most distributed applications the blockchain needs to be
involved only for critical operations.
Most
of the time peer partners could communicate directly, through the
network, without issuing smart contract transactions that imply a
modification of the blockchain.
This
direct communication is possible only if the partners (or Agents)
have a method for identifying and addressing each other uniquely, and
only if the crypto-network provides a (secure) messaging service.
Both these features are missing in current crypto-networks.
SingularityNet
is an example of a GApp implementing a specific purpose network over
the crypto-network (i.e., a virtual private blockchain network –
VPBN). Addressability and unique identification can be provided for
their Agents and databases. However, current crypto-networks do not
provide addressability and unique identification within the
crypto-network, for the Points of Entry to the crypto-network.
Points
of Entry to a crypto-network could be, for example, servers of
organizations owning IoT devices, or providing any type of service
imaginable through GApps. They could be wearable devices uniquely
identifying their owners and using any imaginable service provided by
GApps through the crypto-network. In the future, they could be unique
autonomous robots registered on the blockchain, and using the
crypto-network.
Points
of Entry to the crypto-network must be specified, uniquely
identified, and addressable, when more functionality is required than
what is provided by smart contracts.
Furthermore,
in general, only a small portion of the data created and used by
distributed applications is critical or historical, and needs to be
seen and verified by everyone else in the world for ever. Most of the
data can be stored and retrieved on a server off the blockchain. This
is also very difficult to do, through the crypto-network, without
a method for uniquely identifying and addressing Points
of Entry.
Most
people intuitively understand the advantages of a public network
without intermediaries that is able to store needed information
reliably everywhere. Thus, all sorts of plans are put in place, and
money is invested, to use “the blockchain” for projects that
require reliable identification and addressability of distributed
partners and information. In the meantime, the trend of existing
public crypto-networks is towards user anonymity.
New
generation crypto-networks will reconcile both requirements. In
addition to scalability and throughput, they will provide new
functionality, including addressability of devices, unique
identification of users, secure messaging among unique partners,
registration objects on the blockchain, network governance by
democratic polls, and much more.
They
will be able to provide all the above new functionality without loss
of privacy, without the need of IDs, passwords or personal
information. For more detail, see: gorbyte.com
General
Distributed Applications
Connecting
AGI devices, and sharing information among them, is conceptually
similar to connecting and sharing information among IoT devices. Both
robots and IoT devices need to share large quantities of information
in real time, need to identify and verify each other, need to know
how to address each other for sharing information, may need to
exchange money for services, and can physically meet each other and
cooperate for a specific purpose, while communicating through video
and wireless technologies.
They
also need to be uniquely identifiable and addressable. They need near
zero transaction costs. They can be public, and respond or serve
anyone they encounter, or they may belong to a private group, such as
a VPBN managed by a proprietary GApp which may offer free services or
charge a fee for other services.
Gorbyte,
a new-generation cooperative public crypto-network, provides the
whole infrastructure. It creates a Distributed Operating Environment
(DOE), that can support general distributed applications. The aim is
not to support a specific public social network, or an IoT
application, or an AGI open market specifically, but to support any
distributed application imaginable or ever conceived.
How
can Gorbyte do all this? The scalability and the cost problems are
solved through a new consensus mechanism. The CARS problems are
solved by the crypto-network for all GApps, so that general
distributed applications do not need to solve these problems
individually.
GApps
can be designed and implemented more securely and efficiently at a
higher level, just like Apps written for an iPhone do not need to
solve time-sharing or virtual memory problems.
The
people at Hanson Robotics are on the right track. They included in
their design the ability to possibly switch the carrier
crypto-network to a new generation crypto-network that supports a
less costly consensus mechanisms. New crypto-networks will also
provide them with the needed functionality, such as addressability
and unique identification of those entities that will need to
interact through the crypto-network and use the blockchain
functionality in the AGI open market.
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