Original: Proof of Talk
Compiled by: Yuliya, PANews
As the crypto market gradually emerges from the fog of bull and bear cycles, the industry's collective mood is not as enthusiastic as before. In the ninth episode of the "Proof of Talk" podcast, Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly, and host Mia Soarez delved into the current industry status, Bitcoin's positioning, the impact of AI technology on the crypto field, and the future of human-machine integration. This article has compiled the core viewpoints from this conversation, helping readers comprehensively grasp the cutting-edge trends of crypto and AI intersection, and the potential profound social impacts of these technological transformations. PANews has translated this podcast episode into text.
Industry Status: Tired but Not Pessimistic
Mia: Compared to previous years, why does this ETH Denver seem subdued?
Haseeb: Although this year's ETH Denver is indeed not as vibrant as previous years, it's not entirely negative. I remember the conferences after Terra's collapse and FTX's collapse, when the entire industry was crumbling, and people were questioning their life choices. Now, it's just cryptocurrency prices dropping. People on social media might feel frustrated, but the actual attendees are in good spirits. They are communicating with each other, reconnecting with the early Ethereum community, and remembering why they entered this industry - decentralization, community, and positive construction.
[The rest of the translation follows the same professional and accurate approach, maintaining the original structure and meaning while translating to English.]- "Wizard of Oz agents": This is currently the form of most AI agents. Taking Zerebro as an example, it sends some lively tweets and generated images, but is not actually AI-autonomous decision-making. It is AI generating multiple candidate messages, with humans deciding which ones to actually send. Basically, it is human-controlled, with AI only generating content for human screening. We know AI agents are easily hacked and manipulated, so almost all agents are currently of this type.
- Fully autonomous: These AIs run in environments like AWS, autonomously iterating and executing tasks. While someone can shut them down, no one interferes with their daily operations. You can place them in environments like SGX and prove there's no tampering. These AIs are not as interesting as "Wizard of Oz" types because they lack coherent personalities, but they do exist and will become better in the future.
- Sovereign AI: This is an AI that literally no one can shut down. Unlike the second type, no developer pays AWS bills or GPU fees. Sovereign AI has its own funding (through donations or work), existing in a state where even if someone wants to shut it down, they cannot. It exists like an organism, no longer bound by any human legal system.
The main advantage of Sovereign AI compared to ordinary AI might be conducting fraud. Because no one can shut them down, they would be very effective in large-scale fraud. If you want to use AI for large-scale emotional fraud, you would want it to be sovereign, because if someone investigates and discovers "this AI running on AWS servers is committing fraud", they can subpoena those responsible and shut it down. But Sovereign AI would not have this problem.
[The rest of the translation follows the same professional and accurate approach, maintaining the original meaning while translating to English.]However, the opposite is true - after billions of years of evolution, humans are extremely skilled in physical movement abilities, and even children are far more capable than robots worth hundreds of millions of dollars when it comes to manipulating objects. What we consider difficult - reasoning, conversing, writing, and singing - are relatively easier for AI to master.
What truly belongs to the unique human domain is physical interaction - walking, shaking hands, making a cup of coffee. Even the cooking skills of low-wage workers are currently unmatched by robots. AI will eventually have bodies and be able to do these things, but not as dexterously as humans.
This suggests that before we obtain robots that can move smoothly in the world and simulate human physical characteristics, they will first solve all intellectual problems. Creating virtual avatars is easy, but making robots realistically stroll with you in a restaurant is much more difficult. Such physical experiences will remain scarce, expensive, and precious for a long time, while intellectual activities like singing and writing will become common and devalued.
Mia: I think AI will not replace reproduction in the future. What do you think?
Regarding AI partners and fertility rates, I believe that when we have AI partners that can meet all needs, fertility rates may drop significantly. Imagine when you have an AI boyfriend whispering in your ear while you sleep, providing imagined sexual satisfaction - what can an ordinary person compete with? This might lead us to rely more on in vitro fertilization techniques to maintain population. Even without AI factors, I think we will reach the peak of world population by 2100, after which it will decline. The emergence of AI partners may accelerate this trend.
Mia: We've had DeFi Summer, Solana Summer, what will this year be?
Haseeb: The cryptocurrency market is performing well, but everyone needs to calm down. This year feels like a summer of tariffs and trade wars, which may take some time to get through, but I remain optimistic about the industry's prospects.
