Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of Near, recently discussed the company’s vision of empowering individuals without coding skills by providing them with an artificial intelligence (AI) agent capable of creating decentralized applications (DApps). In an interview with Gareth Jenkinson, the managing editor of Cointelegraph, Polosukhin explained that Near aims to create an infrastructure that breaks through the current limitations of having a small number of developers and end-user applications. The upcoming AI tool will enable anyone with an idea to bring it to life.
Polosukhin provided an example of how the AI tool could assist in creating a freelance marketplace, from writing user stories and creating freelancer profiles to developing a smart contract and a front-end user interface. The AI can also write middleware to connect all the elements together. Additionally, founders have the flexibility to edit the program and add missing features to the application.
In addition to discussing the AI tool, Polosukhin and Jenkinson also addressed the risks associated with AI. Polosukhin expressed concern that centralized companies might use AI to manipulate people for their own financial gain. However, he emphasized that this is not necessarily an “evil plan” but rather a systemic problem driven by big corporations’ constant pursuit of growth.
To combat these risks, Polosukhin believes that there needs to be more user-owned AI models that protect individuals from malicious actors. He highlighted that Web3 is well-suited for designing such architectures, positioning Near as an ideal candidate to develop user-owned AI. However, Polosukhin acknowledged the need to build the necessary infrastructure to support this vision.
In a related article, science fiction author David Brin proposed the idea of using AI to prevent an AI apocalypse by pitting different AI systems against each other. This approach aims to maintain control over AI development and prevent the emergence of a single dominant AI that could pose a threat to humanity.