In a recent post on the X social media network, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz called attention to a recent post by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, in which the former describes the potential convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain.
According to Ohanian, one technology is creating “an indisputable need” for the other. He explains that the internet is currently inundated with images that are generated with the help of AI.
In fact, a 2023 study shows that 150 years worth of images were created in the span of just a single year with the help of such text-to-image generators as Stable Diffusion and Midjourney.
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Ohanian envisions a world where not a single digital picture cannot be trusted due to the proliferation of AI. The technology is progressing at such a rapid pace that many are already struggling to distinguish between real and AI-generated photos. “So, imagine a world where you cannot trust a single JPG you see. You can’t know if it’s real or not, if it was taken by someone who says they took it, or if it depicts something real,” the entrepreneur said.
The Reddit co-founder believes that the blockchain technology could be used to verify the origins of an image’s origin. It would be possible to confirm the authenticity of a certain image by signing an immutable global ledger digitally with one’s device.
This would be a great use case for blockchain, according to Ohanian. “If you’re a President or a CEO – even if you’re just a teenage kid—it’s about to be very, very valuable to prove that an image is yours,” he added.
Blockchain-based verification is nothing new. For instance, accounting giant Ernst & Young, for instance, launched a blockchain-powered service for detecting fake sake back in 2020. Norwegian fisheries also started relying on IBM’s blockchain tech for tracking salmon and battling seafood fraud.
