TL;DR

• Like it or not, AI is going to play a foundational roll in the third generation of the web - right alongside blockchain.

• The glass half full view: Web3 is gaining something, not losing something - or better yet - this is a marriage, not a divorce!

• The two technologies will meet/compliment each other, sooner than they will destroy each other.

Full Story

We spent last week at NFT.NYC, and we noticed something...

Talking to blockchain folks about AI, is like having the 'mom and dad are getting divorced' chat.

You need to constantly reinforce the fact that you still love them blockchain, and that it'd be silly for them to feel the need to choose sides.

It's bizarre...but it's not a total shock - the blockchain space has a reputation for being tribalistic at times.

Don't believe us? Go to a Bitcoin meetup and start talking about Ethereum. We dare you. (Just make sure you have health insurance).

But here's the thing:

Like it or not, AI is going to play a foundational roll in the third generation of the web - right alongside blockchain.

The glass half full view: Web3 is gaining something, not losing something - or better yet - this is a marriage, not a divorce!

The two technologies will meet/compliment each other, sooner than they will destroy each other. For example:

• Want to build a Web3 app, but don't know how to code? ChatGPT will read a blockchain's development documentation, create a step by step action list, and even code together a 'minimum viable product' for you to start testing!

• Want to create an 'otherworldly' NFT photo series, like 'Life In West America'? Midjourney can help! Feed it your photos as a reference, tell it what to add, then - bleep bloop bleep - it's remixed it for you.

• Want to be able to search a blockchain, with queries like 'what low cost NFTs are the wealthiest collectors buying right now'? Large language models, like ChatGPT, are going to be the 'translation engines' that get us there.

"Ok, ok! You make some good points, but I still feel an aversion to this transition....any help?"

We hear you, and we're with you (honestly, we're still getting our heads around it all)...as for why?

Here's what we learned from our own experience - and it's two fold:

1. It feels like AI just came out of nowhere, and was all of a sudden 'the hot new thing.' ...because it did, and it kinda is.
   
   ChatGPT is the first broadly adopted consumer AI product - and it came out in late November 2022 (November!).
   
   The crazier part? It reached 100M daily active users, just two months after it launched.
   
   That's faster than TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Email, Television - literally everything that came before it! So yeah, some whiplash is to be expected.
   

2. Blockchain has been built in public from the beginning - AI wasn't (at least, until recently).
   
   Think about it: from the moment the Bitcoin white paper was released, all the major pieces of the 'blockchain puzzle' have been put together, in public.
   
   On the other hand, AI was being worked on waaay before blockchain existed...but it was largely done behind closed doors.
   
   Decades of work and research needed to be conducted before something like ChatGPT was even remotely possible. But the public never had to grit its teeth and deal with the clunky early iterations of AI (...it was just 'a thing' all of a sudden).
   
   In blockchain, we've been there every step of the way, tinkering and exploring what's on offer.
   
   From the outside looking in: it might feel like blockchain's had a longer lead time, and achieved less - but it's a younger technology.
   
   (And when hearing that expressed, it can be hard not to 'pull a Michael Jordan,' and take it personally).

Still not landing? Here, have an analogy!

Blockchain and AI developers have each been building out the 'roads' that make up Web3 - it's just that AI developers were the first to create the 'car.'

(I.e. a mass market product that anyone/everyone can easily find a use for).

Blockchain will soon follow by powering the next generation of social platforms and games, while continuing to permeate art, music, collectibles, travel, investing, loyalty programs, real estate - you name it.

(Hell, it'll even create things we're still yet to really conceive - like the metaverse).

It's just not here yet.

Point is: mom n' dad aren't getting divorced - they're renewing their vows!

(Aaaaaw!)