In 1950, Alan Turing published a paper exploring whether or not machines could think. Through this research, he developed “The Turing Test” — a framework that assumes the ultimate bar for “Artificial Intelligence” is whether a machine can exhibit behavior indistinguishable from a human in a given activity. Turing’s research sparked a wave of interest in machine intelligence and subfields of machine learning and deep learning. These disciplines are comprised of AI algorithms that create expert systems to make predictions or classifications based on data. Decades later, these expert systems have shaped our modern definition of the consumer experience. At the same time, they remain largely out of reach for the average user.
The combination of machine learning and robust datasets has opened the doors of innovation and accelerated new forms of problem-solving. However, the doors of innovation can swing both ways, offering both positive and negative outcomes. On one hand, your smartphone has native capabilities now powered by AI, like real-time navigation and voice assistants. Even your favorite platforms, like Netflix and Instagram, use AI to offer bespoke product recommendations. The downside to this increased productivity comes at a cost to the consumer. While centralized institutions harvest user data and maximize profit potential behind a walled garden of AI algorithms, consumers have no access to their data and are typically unable to spin up their own ML models to profit from their data and experiences.
Sure, AI has unlocked an enormous amount of productivity through web2 platforms. But as we evolve, how can we use the power of AI to build a world where everyone has access to these advanced models? How can we allow users, not just entities, to profit from their experience across platforms?
Enter Altered State Machine (ASM), a platform and protocol to train, own, and trade AI using NFT primitives. With our collective experience of building and investing at the forefront of new technologies, we felt ASM co-founders David and Aaron McDonald are well-positioned to leverage the core principles of blockchain and machine learning capability. We believe their unique mix of technical know-how and a real commitment to decentralization and open-sourced collaboration, supercharges the distribution of a new kind of artificial intelligence, pushing us closer towards a more robust, interoperable Internet landscape.
ASM unlocks two new primitives in web3:
- Provable ownership of artificial intelligence through an NFT. This allows users to embed
AI into blockchain protocols in which the NFT is a unique container where your ML
algorithm is held. Examples include the tradability of ML algorithms on a secondary
exchange, or the ability to connect an AI to a DAO governance protocol with iterative
outputs according to various inputs of data. - The ability to train your NFT and make it more intelligent. This means you will be able to inject a personality into your Bored Ape or PartyBear and impact the way it learns and reacts in a specific blockchain-based environment.
These two new primitives bring the notion of intelligent, dynamic actors and truly productive assets into the metaverse. Now your PFP is not just a flex of ownership, but a dynamic character that can complete tasks on your behalf and yield economic reward.
Each AI agent from ASM is an NFT with three parts: a brain, form, and memories. Brain is the DNA the agent is born with, like strength or speed. The Brain NFT is the core element of the ASM infrastructure, and it encodes a base attribute set (aka Genome Matrix). Form is the physical attributes of the agent (the aspects you can visually see). Memories store the outputs of training as machine learning models in a Memory Tree and they are unique to each brain.
ASM enables an open metaverse by integrating dynamic NFT agents into P2E, Defi, and Metaverse environments. With both an ML model to train your AI and a governance token to incentivize rewards, Altered State Machine is both a platform and a protocol where users can leverage AI/ML technology to capture their on-chain data and monetize it as they see fit.
At TCG Crypto, we believe that further democratization of AI/ML technology will help shape an open metaverse. It is important that we create an open metaverse with censorship and seizure resistant properties as an alternative to the pitfalls of centralized platforms. By removing barriers to entry for AI/ML skills (which are time-intensive to learn) and the need for significant computing power (which requires upfront costs and multi-level understanding), anyone can experience the benefits of this new technical innovation. While the first application of nonfungible intelligence will be AIFA Football, a play-to-earn soccer game where teams of AI compete against each other for token rewards, we believe ASM’s reach is limitless, with potential applications for digital twins at virtual concerts or technical traders on DEX platforms. Combined with IP partnerships and game/experience development, our bet is that Altered State Machine will become a powerful infrastructure layer for economic creation within web3.
We are thrilled to share that TCG has led the Seed round in Altered State Machine. We’re excited to work more closely with (and learn from) David and Aaron, as well as our friends at Delphi Digital, Flamingo DAO, Warner Music Group, 6th Man Ventures, and others. As centralized tech incumbents continue to limit the power of AI to privatized use cases, organizations like ASM are paving a new path towards an open metaverse. We are grateful and excited to be a part of this journey, working to build an on-chain experience controlled by the people, where individuals have real ownership rights and permissionless creativity to profit from their data.
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TCG is an investor in Altered State Machine. None of the information discussed herein is intended to be, or should be construed as financial advice, or an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any security.