Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a significant part of a human’s life, work, interaction and consumption for the past few years. The use cases of AI have grown exponentially in various aspects of life and industries — including the world of cryptocurrency.
When NFT was first introduced to the masses, combining it with AI was just a concept that visionaries and enthusiasts are trying to work on. But since NFT’s popularity exploded, AI was then integrated in the creation of NFT art and music, with startups like Eponym releasing an AI algorithm that converts text into abstract art which is sold on NFT marketplaces.
In this article, we will discuss the combined technology of AI and NFT known as iNFT, how it works, and if it is a worthwhile investment.
Defining iNFT
According to Alethea AI (one of the pioneers of iNFT), an intelligent NFT, commonly known as iNFT, has an embedded AI personality with a GPT-3 prompt as part of its immutable smart contract. The iNFT generated is not only perceivably intelligent, but has both interactive and animation capabilities as carefully crafted prompts are stored at the smart contract layer. The hardcoded prompts call upon a state-of-the-art Transformer Language model to facilitate generative possibilities only possible through recent breakthroughs in few-shot and single-shot learning.
An iNFT has three core parts:
- Body: The ERC-721 token that shows an image or avatar — the base NFT.
- Soul: A “personality pod,” with different intelligence levels, that makes an iNFT intelligent.
- Mind: As the soul (personality) of an iNFT matures in intelligence levels, the mind is capable of performing higher-order services offered on the network.
Alethea’s developers have chosen iNFTs as the medium for preserving human history and culture because of their fusion with AI, decentralized nature, blockchain provenance, and tokenized incentives.
The iNFT Protocol
It refers to a set of Smart Contracts based on the Ethereum blockchain that allows anyone to create an iNFT in a constraint manner. Unlike close-ended chatbots, which are coded to answer questions with generic answers, iNFTs use large language models to create truly open-ended and temporally consistent AI-generated personalities.
There are four (4) different layers in the iNFT protocol. These are:
- Application Layer
- Protocol Layer
- Asset Layer
- Settlement Layer
Personality Pods
An integration that allows iNFTs to be trained using nature and nurture. Users can nurture their creations with the traits found in the personality pod, and then the iNFT will evolve based on the nature of its personality.
For example, an iNFT fed with rants and unappreciative thoughts will most likely evolve having a self-centered disposition. All interactions between users and iNFTs will shape up the outputs of the iNFT’s personality.
The personality pod can blend on any NFT the user has and give it intelligence. This blending involves locking the personality pod within the smart contracts of the iNFT protocol, which is a noncustodial framework, while leaving the NFT unchanged.
Intelligence Levels
iNFTs have different intelligence levels, which allows them specific access to various AI services. This simply means that an iNFT with a higher intelligence level can utilize more powerful AI services.
In the Alethea AI protocol, a train-to-earn model is used which allows iNFTs to kick-start evolution and achieve continuous intelligence improvement. Once an iNFT reaches a certain intelligence level, it can train their intelligence to earn more tokens. Training happens by unlocking and offering more AI services, engaging in more experiences, learning from others, or participating in intelligence mining games. As an iNFT continues to refine its personality and intelligence, so as its chances of earning more rewards.
Common Characteristics of iNFTs
While iNFTs can eventually have their own unique identity over time, they still share a couple of characteristics that will help them evolve.
- Embedded Intelligence: A pre-defined or evolving prompt in GPT-X embedded as part of it’s immutable architecture creating generative possibilities in interactive conversation
- Self-Learning: Accrues knowledge and Unlocks new forms of Intelligence available to the owner, creator and eventually, the network
- Permissionless: universally usable and censorship resistant
- Metaverse Agnostic: open and available to the internet and integrative with multiple platforms
- Valuable and fractionable: accrues value which is accessible to the owner and creator and its communities through fractional ownership
- Token-based: An Ethereum-based ERC 721 or ERC-1155 Non-Fungible Token (NFT)
Is it a worthy investment?
With notable investors such as Mark Cuban, Multicoin Capital, and Dapper Labs backing up the project, the future of iNFT is promising. It even managed to raise nearly $17 million in a private token sale.
Recently, Binance Smart Chain (BSC) launched a $1 billion growth fund to back up Alethea AI. It is also reported that the exchange platform bought an undisclosed amount of ALI tokens (Alethea AI native token).
As the project continues to gain serious institutional investors, it just proves that this is not a short-term type of investment. Investing in this project means investing for the future of mankind and the metaverse. No one, not even the proponents of the project, knows exactly what that future is going to be. As what most fund managers say, always invest at your own risk.
Final Thought
Merging AI and NFT is expected to be a revolutionary movement in crypto space. It is now slowly making its way to the consciousness of the masses with the availability of NFT avatars and arts. Alethea AI set the standard for building intelligent NFTs using open-ended and consistent AI-generated personalities. This protocol allowed NFT enthusiasts to enjoy interactive experiences, tell immersive stories, and explore how far the intelligence of mankind goes.
