An AI-related small-cap with a promising future.
It’s been long overdue to cover one of the much-hyped AI/artificial general intelligence (AGI) crypto assets in recent months, but here we are.
Today’s crypto project and coin in focus are SingularityNET and AGIX (previously AGI up to 2021).
SingularityNET’s fundamental mission is to create a decentralised, democratic, inclusive system focused on benevolent AGI.
This form of intelligence should be set up so that no single stakeholder (corporation, nation-state or otherwise) can call the shots, unlike what we’ve had for centuries.
The entity covers sectors beyond just robotics, biomedicine and computer applications: it is also involved in finance, media, arts and entertainment, to name a few.
Two incredible minds co-founded and still lead the project: Drs Ben Goertzel and David Hanson. Goertzel (the CEO) boasts over 25 scientific books, more than 150 academic papers and various talks worldwide. Hanson is the mastermind behind Hanson Robotics, responsible for Sophia, the renowned advanced human-like robot.
It’s impressive when a prodigy like Vitalik Buterin contributes* to the world’s leading smart contracts platform, Ethereum, and is still actively involved after many years.
*Whilst Buterin is the inventor and most recognisable co-founder behind Ethereum (i.e., the only one still there), he did not do it alone.
However, imagine another operation with an enormous arsenal of academic and practical experience between two co-founders with decades of experience in the AI and robotics realm. Let’s not forget the other great minds behind SingularityNET, such as its engineers, scientists, researchers, businesspeople and marketers.
Image by ArtemisDiana on Shutterstock
Key components of SingularityNET + some use cases
AI Platform
The entity’s AI Marketplace claims to let you “Explore the largest open AI services in the world”, with 76 services available on its current beta platform.
Some of the highest-rated apps (roughly 4 out of 5 stars or above) through this marketplace are as follows (yes, I did also factor in the number of reviews, too, as part of the average score):
- Detect Action in Video
- Style Transfer: Transfer the artistic style of one supplied image to the second one provided.
- Image Segmentation
- Neural Image Generation
- Song Splitter (featured service)
I also came across the popular app through the Marketplace called DeOldify Photos; this image colouriser (colorizer) received a 3/5. However, with time, I expect this to improve gradually.
As a suggestion, for greater transparency and more information, it will be useful to allow everyone to see further details about reviews — When they were posted, the star rating per user, what specific feedback was provided (or lack thereof), and so on. Nevertheless, it is a start, and I expect the AI Marketplace will become an increasingly valuable tool.
AI – Domain Specific Language (AI – DSL)
This primarily aims to help facilitate ad-hoc workflow: Automated procedures that can be amended or created accordingly (ad hoc) during a work operation to carry out a specific task (workflow).
The AI – DSL to be used by SingularityNET is designed for improved ad-hoc workflow collabs that can execute more tasks than individual services.
A helpful synopsis of the main benefits of AI – DSL are covered by Dr Goertzel in this Medium piece. In summary, the language being developed here will permit:
– AI agents (individual, autonomous components designed to interact with each other) to work together and carry out problem-solving in an AI system; no need for human intervention once programmed accordingly;
– External software systems to effectively communicate with these agents;
– These AI agents to recognise relevant datasets and how to use the information contained within them;
Sidenote: Before continuing, most of the content here involves simplified explanations and is predominantly aimed at a layperson mostly interested in investing in AGIX and wanting some understanding of what it and SingularityNET entail, without too much jargon.
AGIX Token Tools
– AGIX Staking: Fairly self-explanatory and a similar process to other proof-of-stake (PoS) assets.
– SingularityNET Bridge A crypto-swapping service still in its infancy, though I anticipate that this will gradually improve. At present, it offers support for Ethereum and Cardano wallets.
I have included a screenshot below of how it looks for now.
OpenCog Hyperon
OpenCog is an open-source software ambition to get the positive components of AGI available on a widespread level, not just to benefit humanity.
Notice a similarity to SingularityNET’s goal here? Well, this is partly because Dr Goertzel is also the leader of this initiative, with assistance from other great minds in this space.
Hyperon utilises aspects of OpenCog, but it is designed to readily adapt to rapidly changing blockchain infrastructure, thus making the entire process quicker, more scalable, versatile and simpler to operate.
SingularityNET news and partnerships
One of the most renowned collaborations to date is with the digital communications tech giant Cisco Systems; the two are working together to develop a decentralised AGI system.
Despite doing the rounds on numerous news networks (crypto and conventional media) back in September 2019, when this was first announced, I have yet to come across updates since then. Nonetheless, it remains a major announcement on SingularityNET’s news room webpage.
Then again, I can’t imagine how complex this would be, especially to have a truly decentralised system that needs to remain secure and operational, and can handle sufficient throughput (transactions per second) involving something as complicated as AGI.
As a result, keep an eye on any possible announcements about progress with this partnership in the coming years. The original post on the official SingularityNET website is available here, so I recommend you use this as a primary source of info for this project.
“The scale of the AGI deployments needed by a partner like Cisco is going to be tremendous, and we are working hard to make sure our AGI tools and our blockchain-based platform is up to the task.”
Dr Ben Goertzel
Last June, the CEO announced the AGIX ERC-20 Converter Bridge launch in collaboration with Input Output Global (IOG), one of the three key entities spearheading Cardano.
Thinking of SingularityNET’s current roadmap, focusing on events for 2023, Cardano features on several occasions throughout this. Moreover, it was repeatedly listed as a partner for many completed (2022) SingularityNET projects.
Dr Goertzel also praised Cardano’s Plutus smart contract language and the Haskell functional programming language for convenient integration into SingularityNET’s API-of-APIs.
Hence, these two blockchain projects will continue forging strong ties in the coming years, even if one were to prioritise another chain down the track.
Image by Phonlamai Photo on Shutterstock
One of the most significant projects derived from SingularityNET is Rejuve, a decentralised, blockchain-based AI network to monitor and help improve one’s longevity.
In a related article, it aims to accomplish this through a combination of AI, blockchain tech and advanced research. If successful, it will be an enormous achievement for general society as a vast swathe of tools and knowledge will be readily available through Rejuve’s app.
Making this widely available democratises access to (literally) vital details and resources that have been historically available for certain academics and ultra-wealthy individuals.
The project’s whitepaper and website provide a comprehensive overview of what it entails, so if this is something you want to research, these are two helpful resources (particularly the former for something more academically rigorous).
An excellent visual overview of the multiple partnerships associated with SingularityNET is available here.
Before moving on, last June also brought about the collaboration between SingularityNET and Saudi technology company, Mozn. They made a joint announcement about their work to develop leading AI solutions for improved anti-money laundering (AML) compliance.
AGIX token summary
Riding the hype of AI/AGI since the launch of ChatGPT three months ago, AGIX has been one of the best performers in the top 100 cryptos year-to-date (YTD), up by >1000% at the time of writing. This, let alone other digital assets in the AI/AGI realm with strong teams backing them, will have a promising future.
AGIX is ranked 76th (depending on the price-tracking website you use), priced at roughly $0.53 per token. What is very promising is that, in spite of its significant growth YTD, it is still considered a small-cap crypto (<$1 billion circulating market cap); AGIX’s CMC is currently ~$650 million.
The token has a circulating supply of approximately 1.205 billion tokens, close to its total supply and about 60% of its max supply of 2 billion AGIX.
Of course, the potential 20,30 or even >50x upsides (just maybe, one day) also come with massive risk, so do be sensible about how you choose to invest in this crypto if you intend to do so.
The token is SingularityNET native crypto and is used for staking, SingularityNET Bridge and more; additional details are available here.
Image by Login on Shutterstock
How to keep informed and stay in touch with SingularityNET and AGIX news
- Official website and news page
- Whitepaper (version 2.0, Feb 2019 update)
- Medium
- YouTube
- Discord
- Telegram
Food for thought
Competition in the AI/AGI sub-sector of crypto will be intense, so I would refrain from going all in on just one asset—research reputable alternatives with robust use cases and a solid team backing their projects and associated native cryptos.
Overall, I am impressed with the people behind the project and the real-world problems they are trying to solve across multiple sectors, particularly their emphasis on beneficial use cases of AI/AGI. Hence, I am optimistic about SingularityNET’s prospects, yet I realise it is still far from reaching its full potential, like many other projects in this nascent industry.
It is reassuring to see the emphasis here on the benevolent applications that SingularityNET offers, let alone any related project. There are ideas postulated surrounding the existential threats of AGI, which are important to acknowledge, especially when dealing with AI for nefarious purposes (that I won’t elaborate on for various reasons).
However, like money, the Internet or any invention, it is merely a tool that can be used for beneficial and sinister purposes. However, there is promise in AGI being used to advance humanity and even our natural environment in some ways.
I acknowledge that whilst I have a science background, AI/AGI and robotics are not my forte. I still have much to learn about using their several applications across numerous industries, notably involving crypto.
Before wrapping up, I want to draw your attention to a tweet from the CEO himself.
“I used to be in crypto, but now I got interested in AI"
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2023
The following day, he made a cryptic reference to ‘The Singularity’ (and another one earlier today…), which has led to noticeable price spikes for AGIX this month. Something deeper at play here? It remains to be seen, though I wouldn’t be surprised if this involves SingularityNET.
Why am I mentioning this here? Firstly, we know that he would still be watching AI-related cryptos, even if “he used to be in crypto”, as he knows that there’s money to be made.
Owing to Musk’s (disproportionate) influence over the crypto sphere, I would keep an eye out for further references to The Singularity or any AI-related cryptos, i.e., AGIX, GRT, FET and others, particularly those with a notable circulating market cap (top 100).
Any mention of a digital asset by him and the general online community loses their s&*t, with prices going ballistic shortly after, albeit ephemerally in some cases.
Sounds exaggerated, but let’s not forget how MANA and SAND went parabolic (yes, literally) hours after Mark Zuckerberg publicly announced Facebook’s new focus on the metaverse and rebranding to Meta Platforms.
Sooner or later, I expect some reference to a preferred AI crypto and upcoming major partnership, whether from Musk/Twitter, Google, Amazon or another tech behemoth. Whenever that happens, brace yourselves for some insane price movements for crypto assets or even related stocks.
Here is the link if you are on a laptop or desktop:
https://www.binance.com/en/activity/referral-entry/CPA?fromActivityPage=true&ref=CPA_002PKBO6IF
Disclaimers
N.B. None of this is financial or legal advice, and I am neither a financial advisor nor a lawyer. You are solely responsible for crypto investments and how you interpret the information provided in this piece.
The opinions expressed within this piece are my own and might not reflect those behind SingularityNET or any other entity listed here.
Please do your research before investing in any crypto assets, staking, NFTs and other product affiliated with this space.
AGIX accounts for less than 0.5% of my crypto portfolio, so its performance will have little impact on my overall holdings, regardless of how it performs.
I received no incentive from companies or entities listed throughout this article to discuss their product.
If you enjoyed this article, I recommend following my Medium page for regular reports about crypto assets, blockchain technology, and more. Feel free to check out my publication as well, Crypto Insights AU.
Thanks for your support.
Featured image from SingularityNET press media kit.