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In the last few weeks, there has been a ton of discussion about the potential overlap between Bitcoin, Lightning, and AI. Most of this discussion revolves around using L402s for paid APIs and machine-machine payments.
This weekend, we wanted to hear some of your most interesting ideas for how the AI and Bitcoin ecosystems might overlap in the future. A few questions to consider:
  • Will Bitcoin become the preferred payment method for AI applications?
  • What types of AI applications will people be spending most of their time and money on in the future?
  • How important will AI be to our economy as a percentage of GDP?
  • Does Bitcoin's integration into AI apps make you more optimistic or pessimistic on the future of AI?
What about the AI4ALL hackathon that just started? Surely you know about that! https://bolt.fun/tournaments/ai4all/overview
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I think bitcoiners are falling for a fiat-driven hype cycle. "AI" has been ubiquitous for over a decade and now we have our panties up in a bunch just because it's been given an easily-accessible frontend. A better explanation, in my view, is that high interest rates are exposing two decades of mal-investment and Silicon Valley tech bros are looking for something that will keep the perpetual motion machine going a bit longer so they can get off before it crashes.
I've spent a bunch of time messing with ChatGPT and some of the open source alternatives. The technology is very cool, but I haven't seen anything that suggests it's useful in any transformational way. I don't think it will replace workers, but there's tremendous profit to be made from fear-mongering about it while those workers are losing jobs due to the violent mood swings of the economy, caused by a fiat system.
If a singularity is approaching, my bet is that it will be caused by bitcoin, not AI.
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Its good to look at the broader perspective! I like to think of Bitcoin's technology being a much better substrate or "soil" that allows everyone space to grow.
AI might be a hype. It has provided me value in the time it saves and the doors it opens. Regardless if it's useful in the end, hype can still serve as a meaningful motivation to building open-source tools that can be applied to a greater set of applications!
The current paradigm for software as a service is the whole "if you're not paying for it, you are the product". There has to be a meaningful and frictionless exchange and currency provides a common ground of value for that. L402's seem like a promising bridge.
If this singularity occurs at least Bitcoin will provide people the hope to maintain sovereignty (if they wish!) which opens up the playing field to fair competition instead of being at the behest of tech giants.
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