Is AI the new crypto?

The productionization of AI systems is nascent, but net net, it seems to crush crypto on value creation.

Most enabling technologies are relatively missionless: cloud infrastructure, semiconductors, mobile, even the internet. Perhaps AI should be mission-neutral at the infrastructure level, while the mission gets defined at the application layer. DeepMind’s stated mission seems to point in the right neutral direction: “solve intelligence, and then use

Outside of film, people tell credible dystopian AI narratives around entrenching wokeism more deeply, or worse, replacing human work. AI can be a symbiotic partner to human creativity and thought, but the optimistic story needs to be shared.

AI’s positive mission is not as crystallized as crypto’s, or at least not yet.

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The negative-value cases of AI

are harder to pinpoint. The TikTok algorithm may be the best example of wasted time, though in a world without AI-powered feeds, social media consumption is likely still very high.

Crypto’s original application required its original sin: tokenized architecture. The corrupting force of financialization ultimately overpowered the usefulness of the technology.

In 2023, AI must absorb an influx of tourists – thin GPT wrappers, MBA tweet threads about AI trends, LinkedIn bios changing from #crypto to #AI. Genuine technologists will join the development effort, but filtering out negative human capital is challenging.

Undoubtedly, more builders are needed to apply and productionize the latest technologies,