AI would pick Bitcoin over centralized crypto – Tether CTO

If humanity were to amalgamate with artificial intelligence in the future, Bitcoin could be the native currency of choice for sentient machine intelligence, according to Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino.

Ardoino delved into this hypothetical reality in conversation with Cointelegraph journalist Joseph Hall during an interview conducted during the Plan B Summer School in Lugano, Switzerland.

Pick your flag for the team photo!

I channelled my inner @RunwithBitcoin
@paoloardoino channels his adopted country
pic.twitter.com/LN2TBdM84x

— Joe Nakamoto (@JoeNakamoto) July 3, 2023

Ardoino believes that the decentralized nature of Bitcoin’s protocol makes it the natural choice for AI if it were to adopt a digital currency in the future:

“I think AGI will definitely only choose Bitcoin.”

AGI, or artificial general intelligence, refers to the concept of an artificial intelligence that is able to learn how to complete an intellectual task that humans are capable of performing. The advent of large language learning models like ChatGPT have blown open the potential for AI and AGI to overhaul many industries and fundamentally change the way in which humans carry out a litany of tasks.

Related: AI-related crypto returns rose up to 41% after ChatGPT launched: Study

Ardoino believes that the future of humanity may well involve the amalgamation of humans and AI through the incorporation of bionic elements and “augmented brain capacity”. He highlighted projects like Elon Musk’s Neuralink as prime examples of efforts to explore the possibility of enhanced cognition powered by AI-powered technology.

Pointing to ‘The Matrix’ movies as popular imagining of what a dystopian AI-ruled future would look like, Ardoino suggested that AGI would naturally choose Bitcoin over centralized currencies:

“A machine will always choose something that is fully decentralized that no one can control. If machines have to pay for electricity to work, they will always use something that humans cannot control and they will use bitcoin, in my opinion.”

The CTO of Tether, the largest US dollar-backed stablecoin by market cap, also suggested that AI would not use USDT because of its centralized nature.

The possibility of a future in which humanity coexists alongside AI in whatever shape or form could be as close as 20 to 30 years away according to Ardoino. However, this could be determined by differing focuses on reverse aging as opposed to incorporating AI and bionic elements into humans to augment their physical and mental capabilities.

“The future tells me that we are going toward augmented intelligence that will end up with AI co-mingling with normal brains. Maybe that is the future of humanity.”

The likes of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, have earmarked the AI ecosystem as a prime investment opportunity given its “disruptive” nature in contemporary times. A mid-year outlook report highlighted gains of the S&P 500 becoming increasingly concentrated in a handful of tech stocks. 

The interview is part of an upcoming Cointelegraph documentary about what it’s like to attend a Bitcoin School. Subscribe here (https://www.youtube.com/@cointelegraph) to watch.

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