The Threat of AI to Web3 and Decentralization

Artificial intelligence could “build a wall around closed systems,” bolster existing corporate interests, and hinder the full realization of Web3, experts told Cointelegraph.

“Our major concern now, when we talk about an open network, is that if we don’t have a trustworthy, irreversibly open environment for AI development, the open network may never become a reality,” noted Chris Donovan, Chief Operating Officer of Near Foundation.

Co-founder and CEO of Near Foundation, Illia Polosukhin, also perceives AI as a risk to open systems.

“Most AI developments occur within really large corporations, which have a very clear incentive—to continue generating more profit for the company. This [AI] has very antagonistic goals towards the people who use it, because Google or Facebook cannot find another billion users. Therefore, they need to increase revenue per user, which means making them spend more time on the product,” he said.

In such a scenario, large corporations use AI to “herd users into corporate bunkers,” notes Cointelegraph.

Corporate Closed Doors

Polosukhin added that a situation might arise where a user “sits in an operating system or social network and literally has no other way out, not even a browser.”

He cited Microsoft, a major player in the AI race, which faced an antitrust lawsuit in 2001 for attempting to monopolize the web browser market. The company then agreed to make changes to its business practices.

On June 25, 2024, the EU accused the corporation of unethical actions related to bundling the Teams app with Office. The regulator believes this gave the company an advantage over competitors.

Polosukhin believes AI has great potential to manipulate its users and create a “perfect storm of anti-competition.”

“You won’t be able to escape such a system and will think that this is exactly what you want,” he said.

Social Networks and Lack of Choice

Donovan highlighted the social media sector as one of the threats.

“These platforms do not encourage good behavior or quality information. They encourage screen attention, which, in my opinion, is a very negative paradigm. I think if AI is applied in this paradigm, it will only amplify and exacerbate the problems—and they are really very fundamental. These are things like political polarization, erosion of trust in institutions, disinformation. All these things are destroying our society on a global level,” said the Chief Operating Officer of Near Foundation.

Polosukhin noted that major tech platforms will want to provide more information directly rather than redirecting to third-party sources. According to him, this weakens pluralism and media independence.

“You won’t leave Google. You won’t go to smaller pages. You will no longer bring them revenue. All publications will have less and less traffic from Google,” he added.

Elon Musk identified artificial intelligence as his primary concern.

Read more on how to recognize AI manipulations on the internet at Forklog.