As the crypto industry continues to evolve, a new wave of scams is emerging, blending the hype of artificial intelligence (AI) with crypto, Kathleen Breitman, co-founder of the Tezos blockchain, has warned.
Writing in a commentary piece for Fortune on Sunday, warned of a rising trend where opportunistic individuals are attempting to fuse these seemingly unrelated fields to capitalize on unsuspecting investors.
Three types of AI-related crypto scams
According to Breitman, there are three distinct flavors to this emerging trend.
The first involves using crypto tokens for accessing AI models or services, attempting to exploit the overlap in the usage of the term “tokens” in both AI and crypto contexts.
While some AI services accept crypto for payments, the linkage is often superficial, and entrepreneurs may attempt to convince investors otherwise, she said.
The second flavor revisits the notion that “data is the new oil,” a phrase from the 2017 boom in initial coin offerings (ICO) that has now become an internet meme.
According to the Tezos co-founder, scammers may peddle tokens claiming to reward individuals for contributing personal data to AI training models through supposed “data marketplaces.”
In her article, Breitman dismissed this concept, saying that personal data is in “no sensible way” a monetizable asset.
Third, Breitman predicted the emergence of tokens explicitly branded with “AI” or “GPT” (based on the popular chat bot ChatGPT) in their names, capitalizing on the excitement surrounding these technologies.
Crypto and AI merger make little sense
In conclusion, Breitman stressed that the attempts that have been seen so far to merge AI and crypto make no sense in the eyes of genuine AI developers.
She also cautioned against falling for these “shoehorned” tokens, and said the crypto industry unfortunately has demonstrated a tendency to generate questionable business models with the hope of luring unsuspecting investors.
“This includes rebranding existing crypto businesses in hopes of dumping tokens on retail suckers,” she said, while reminding readers that the main value of crypto is to provide “a censorship resistant store of value that unites people across borders.”
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