Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and Blockchain describe two rather different technologies. Nevertheless the two are insofar interlinked that they are both hard to understand. They both are new technologies which are here to stay and to transform our world. It is therefore useful to understand the two concepts, understand their specific use cases, understand their differences und how they could go together.
What is the difference between AI and blockchain
There are tons of videos about the technical developments behind these technologies. We are going to leave the technical parts aside and we’re just going to be talking about the different use cases and the different properties of those two technologies.
So let’s dive into it: what’s the difference between blockchain and artificial intelligence. Let’s start with blockchain technology.
Blockchain: Decentralization
Blockchain was developed for decentralized applications.
That means the idea of blockchain is actually something which is behind the whole internet. The idea is that you don’t have a centralized institution but you have all the data decentralized all over the world. So the idea is usually to cut out the middleman. You don’t want a central institution where you for example give your money to, but you want to have all the information decentralized on different servers, on different computers.
The idea with blockchain is that the data is fixed. Blockchain wants to preserve. Blockchain wants to keep the past as it is. With blockchain you want to write something down and you want it to be written forever.
Blockchain technology is a decentralized ledger technology.
AI: Constant change
With artificial intelligence this is not the case. There was never the idea to decentralize it.
On the other hand there are really rich companies which are developing artificial intelligence, for example Google or Microsoft. Those are the big players in the field. So we have a lot of centralization behind artificial intelligence.
Another difference is the question if the data is changeable.
Artificial intelligence is dynamic. It is changing all the time. It is learning constantly. It is evolving itself all the time. Artificial intelligence is much more a device for dynamic behavior. You could say that blockchain is more like like your memory. You want to memorize things and keep them there.
Artificial intelligence is much more your learning device. You want to learn something. You want to get new results. While blockchain is your brain, artificial intelligence is your intuition, is your learning, is your science, is your method to develop new knowledge.
Blockchain is focused on the past.
Artificial intelligence is focused on the future.
Blockchain is static.
Artificial intelligence is dynamic.
Blockchain is deductive. This means there are certain rules which are set and all what follows follows from those rules. Blockchain is deductive. Code is king and it should stay this way.
Artificial intelligence works inductive. You see a little bit, just a small part, some data and what follows is the general rule. Artificial intelligence learns a little bit like humans. We see a little set of data. We make a new observation and we draw the conclusion to the great picture. We conclude to the great rule. That’s how we develop new principles and new knowledge. Artificial intelligence is inductive, constant development, constant change, constant progress.
And that’s why those two technologies are being used for different use cases.
Blockchain is better used for value transfer, for property rights, for contracts. Everything you want to write down and you want to have for the future.
Artificial intelligence can be used much more for science. For getting to learn new stuff. For developing new stuff. For gaining new wisdom.
Using blockchain technology in your company would be ideally in contracts for example or in controlling, in accounting.
Artificial intelligence would be more used in your company with the marketing department, with the product development, with market analysis, so more in a creative way. More in a way where you want to find out something new about your customers, about your products, about your services.
Is Blockchain related to AI?
The two fields have come from different use cases and have been used for totally different applications. Nowadays the two technologies are merging. Because both of these technologies can affect and enact data in distinct ways, combining them makes sense and potentially pushes data exploitation to new heights. Simultaneously, incorporating machine learning and AI into blockchain, and vice versa, can improve blockchain’s fundamental architecture while also enhancing AI’s capabilities.
How AI and Blockchain work together
Those two technologies, even though they are very different, could also work perfectly together. AI could enhange Blockchain and vice versa. By combining AI and Blockchain you could use for example the imense computing power which is used for establishing and maintaining a blockchain. With Bitcoin, this power ist not used. But there are systems, which use the computing power at the same time. AI needs a lot of computing power. Tapping into the huge amount of computing power could advance our AI systems.
Watch this video to find out more about the combination of AI and Blockchain: