It doesn’t matter if AI scares you, it’s inevitable
Erik Voorhees and Teana Baker-Taylor are co-founders of Venice, an open-source and uncensored AI chatbot and content generation platform.
In this episode, the Venice co-founders discuss the vision and approach of their product in contrast to more restrictive and centralized AI models like ChatGPT.
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
00:43 Origin of Venice AI
02:37 'AI is like Bitcoin but scarier'
07:29 Proprietary AI Models
09:12 Regulatory Inefficiencies
11:16 Global AI Regulatory Regimes
16:46 AI Censorship
20:11 Moderation on Venice
25:01 Freedom vs Privacy
34:11 Venice Pricing Model
36:35 AI Agents
39:44 AI 'Rights'
50:37 Venice Roadmap
54:10 Closing Thoughts
This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Polkadot
Polkadot is the blockspace ecosystem for boundless innovation. To discover more, head to polkadot.network
The Block Community
The Block is launching a new community experience for fans of The Scoop! Follow us on Lens to stay in the loop: hey.xyz/u/theblockcommunity
The Block Newsletters
The Block's newsletters bring you the latest news and analysis of the fast-moving crypto and DeFi markets. To subscribe, visit theblock.co/newsletters
Erik Voorhees' New Venture: Why AI Desperately Needs Privacy and Uncensorability - Ep. 645
Erik Voorhees, a crypto OG, has launched Venice, a private, uncensorable, open-source competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, powered by a decentralized crypto network.
In the episode, Erik and Venice’s COO Teana Baker-Taylor delve into the problems with censorship and data in current AI agents, including how they create honeypots of information about users’ search history for hackers, or that they can be absurdly politically correct, such as refusing to create images of Caucasian people. As they point out, there’s also the risk that the companies managing them could be censoring the models to please the Chinese government, in order to access the market in that country. They talk about their plan for Venice to gain market share, considering that DuckDuckGo, a privacy-preserving competitor to Google, has a much smaller market share. And they explain why they intend for Venice to eventually use the compute of Morpheus, or other decentralized crypto-powered compute networks.
They also critique the SEC’s current regulatory approach to crypto, calling it “a joke.” Additionally, they explore the concept of AI agents using cryptocurrencies as their primary currency.
Show highlights:
Why Erik decided to move into artificial intelligence and merge it with crypto
What problems decentralized AI would solve and why it's hard to solve sexist and racist views in LLMs
The differences between ChatGPT and other similar products and Venice AI
Why privacy is so important for users, according to Erik, and how Venice doesn't store the users' information
How central governments could manipulate information to their own benefit and how to avoid it
Whether people will shift from using search engines to LLMs
What Morpheus is and its goal to provide decentralized computation for AI
How Erik and Teana believe crypto and AI will continue to work together
Erik's and Teana's thoughts on some of the recent government actions against founders of crypto privacy services such as Samourai Wallet andTornado Cash
Why Erik believes that the SEC has become a joke
Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com
First Bits + Bips episode: Bits + Bips: Does Macroeconomics Point to a Potential Crypto Supercycle?
Thank you to our sponsors!
Polkadot
VaultCraft
Guests:
Erik Voorhees, Founder and CEO of Venice AI
Previous appearances on Unchained:
Erik Voorhees and Cobie on Why FTX Loaned Out Customers’ Assets
Why ShapeShift’s Erik Voorhees Thinks Toxic Bitcoin Maximalism Is Bullshit
Shapeshift’s Erik Voorhees on How Crypto Will Separate Money and State
Teana Baker-Taylor, COO at Venice AI
Links
Previous coverage on Unchained of crypto/AI:
When AI and Blockchain Meet, How Can Each Technology Benefit?
The Chopping Block: Why AI Will Change the Course of History in Crypto
5 Use Cases of AI in Blockchain
A Beginner's Guide to AI Tokens
Venice AI:
Erik’s thread announcing Venice
The Separation of Mind and State
Architecture:
About Morpheus.Network
Messari: What is Akash Network?
LLMs:
MIT Technology Review: LLMs become more covertly racist with human intervention
China Talk: Censorship’s Impact on China’s Chatbots - by Nicholas Welch
Recent cases on privacy:
CoinDesk: Samourai Wallet Founders Arrested and Charged With Money Laundering
Cointelegraph: DOJ’s Tornado Cash arguments show ‘obvious disdain for privacy’ — Lawyer
CNBC: North Korea crypto hacking activity soars to record high in 2023, new report shows
Reuters: Exclusive: UN experts investigate 58 cyberattacks worth $3 bln by North Korea
Erik’s post on the right to have privacy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
