Cuautemoc Weber of Gateway.fm Explores innovation at the intersection of AI and Web3

Web3 ecosystems have achieved maturity with recent industry achievements on the regulatory end of things.  Yet, everyone thinks the Wbe3 and AI crowds are the same. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, Web3 tech and AI innovations have points of convergence and intersections. How do the two intersect, you may ask? Cuautemoc Weber, Co-Founder and CEO of Gateway.fm explains. 

HappyFutureAI:

How do you envision AI impacting the Web3 space?

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) is opening up unprecedented avenues for creativity and innovation across various industries, and the Web3 sector is no exception. 

The global AI market continues to surge, with substantial investments indicating immense growth prospects. From 2015 to 2021, AI investment exploded from $12.75 million to $93.5 billion, and is projected to reach $422 billion by 2028. As the Web3 market kicks into high gear, AI will play a pivotal role in combating fraud, analyzing transactions, enhancing security, automating processes, and uncovering market trends. 

From a creativity standpoint, Generative AI is reshaping artistic endeavors, alleviating the technical burden on creators, and democratizing artistic expression. The speed of AI development is staggering, bringing challenges as well as opportunities for many sectors in the wider digital industry. I’m a strong believer that AI will complement many of the technologies being deployed in various sectors, unlocking tangible efficiency gains and exciting use cases.”

HappyFutureAI:

In your view, what is the potential of AI tokens?

“Recently, there has been a noticeable increase in the popularity of AI-related tokens, as evidenced by the strong market performance of Worldcoin’s WLD token and Ocean Protocol’s OCEAN token. 

While it’s uncertain whether this momentum will persist in the long run, the integration of AI into the crypto ecosystem shows significant potential and is already happening with several intersections from LLM data set training via verifiable sources and tracking to new ways of micro payments for some of the computation services. As is the case with most tokens, the success of AI tokens hinges on the value of their underlying use cases, such as smart contract auditing. 

Moreover, advancements in AI technology, particularly in machine learning algorithms and predictive analytics, have the potential to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of blockchain platforms, thereby strengthening the appeal of AI tokens. The truth is, we need to experiment with the utility of these AI tokens to discover the most viable use cases moving forward.”

HappyFutureAI:

Are there any specific deployments of AI in Web3 that you are particularly excited by?

“The convergence of AI and blockchain technology represents a catalyst for innovation, offering a wide array of applications from decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to predictive analytics for investment strategies. AI’s capacity to analyze extensive datasets and automate decision-making processes enhances scalability, security, and user experience within the crypto ecosystem. 

Additionally, amidst concerns surrounding the proliferation of deep fake content, blockchain serves as a robust mechanism for verifying content authenticity. Through Zero-knowledge proof technology, blockchain offers an anti-fake AI content inspection solution, ensuring trust and reliability in content sources. 

We are already working with very interesting projects in the space like GPT Protocol. Using AI as “trusted” autonomous applications on-chain and to improve the chain’s performance through bug fixes and optimizations, this will help automate the correction of blockchains as an example.” on top of this we are already gaining a lot of momentum in the space of blockchain and AI as a key technology partner to enable this merging of AI + zero knowledge + DePin infrastructure

HappyFutureAI:

On the topic of Zero-knowledge Proof technology, how is Gateway.fm leveraging this technology?

“Our overarching goal is to make blockchain technology easy to engage with and build on top of. One of our signature solutions is called Presto powered by Gateway – our Zero-knowledge based Web3 platform as-a-service, designed to greatly simplify the implementation of Zero-knowledge roll-ups. Presto allows any non-native crypto user to deploy an advanced full E2E zk-validium rollup within a couple of clicks and minutes.

We resolve the complexity of deploying the infrastructure, smart contract and additional tooling needed to have a fully functioning zk-rollup which is a quite difficult endeavour. We currently offer over 30 microservices, and we anticipate this figure to grow as more features and functionalities are added in due course.

We also have deep R&D expertise which we are putting to use in order to scale and improve the performance of this new technology, from the infrastructure layer (DePin) all the way to the actual use case, we feel invigorated by the acceptance we’ve experienced from the market in doing all the detailed work on helping these new protocols launch their own networks and bring sustainability and new innovative uses cases to the Web3 space.”

HappyFutureAI:

What opportunities lie at the intersection of AI and Zero-Knowledge Proof technology?

“The confluence of ZKP technology and AI holds immense potential for enhancing privacy, security, and efficiency in various applications. ZKP allows one party – the prover – to prove to another party – the verifier – that a statement is true without revealing any additional information beyond the validity of the statement itself. This capability has significant implications for AI, particularly in the context of preserving privacy while leveraging AI capabilities for data analysis and decision-making.

One key application of ZKP in AI is in privacy-preserving Machine Learning (ML). Traditional ML models require access to sensitive data for training, which raises privacy concerns, especially when dealing with personal or sensitive information. ZKP offers a solution by allowing data owners to prove the correctness of their data without revealing its contents. This enables collaborative machine learning, where multiple parties can contribute data to train a model without exposing their data to each other or to the model itself. As a result, ZKP enables the development of AI models that respect user privacy while still delivering accurate and valuable insights.

Additionally, ZKP can enhance the security and integrity of AI systems by enabling verifiable computation. In this scenario, ZKP is used to prove that a computation has been performed correctly without revealing any intermediate values or sensitive information. This can be particularly useful in AI applications where the correctness of computations is critical, such as in financial transactions, healthcare diagnostics, or autonomous systems.

At Gateway.fm, we are also about to start experimenting with Micropayments in blockchain for computational LLM modeling, which can be properly tracked and automated via smart contracts. This will be a new area of experimentation to look at, and we expect this space to expand over the next few years as transactions become cheaper thanks to Ethereum scalability via Layer 2s.” 

HappyFutureAI:

What can we expect from Gateway.fm over the next year?

“Moving forward, we will be bringing innovative new products to market that align with the nuanced needs of our expanding roster of clients, both the underlying infrastructure development needed in zkEVM to have a robust mainnet deployment and scalability expected, while also enticing traditional financial institutions and enterprises into the blockchain space. Right now we are also exploring collaboration opportunities with major industry players to build out a unique traders platform to capture the value of perpetuals trading. Watch this space.”

HappyFutureAI:

Where can people learn more about Gateway.fm?
“Readers can follow us on twitter (X) (@gateway_eth) or visit gateway.fm to check out our expanding set of solutions. We are redefining the future of decentralized technology, serving the leading DeFi solutions in the decentralized space, and we are always on the lookout for new partners, so any interested parties can reach out to [email protected] to discuss collaboration synergies.”