3min chapter

Chain Reaction cover image

Blockchain tech is working to combat AI-based deepfakes (w/ Melody Hildebrandt and Mike Blank)

Chain Reaction

CHAPTER

Exploring the Potential of Blockchain and AI in Combating Misinformation

Exploring the potential of blockchain and AI in fighting misinformation, focusing on signing information on the blockchain for accountability and establishing on-chain truth to prevent manipulation. The chapter also touches on how blockchain technology could reinstate a global social contract for responsible information sharing.

00:00
Speaker 3
Yeah, as the US elections are coming up in the fall, the major ones, obviously we have elections going on right now. What other ways do you two see blockchain and AI as complementary technologies to one another in combating misinformation, especially during election season?
Speaker 1
Well, one thing Mike and I talked about, I think, is that by signing something on chain, you can't delete that, right? If you put some information out there, you signed it. It has this potential to really establish this accountability, I think, which I think is very interesting as you think about a long tail of new brands that are trying to build reputation. So if you're a sub-stack writer, you're signing on chain, like all these assertions over time, there's really a track record to evaluate you, I guess. You can't just be deleting the tweets that cannot be the way you wanted or that you didn't do sufficient research around, right? Like there is that record. So I think it's another interesting future of on-chain provenance in this information landscape to really allow, again, emergent brands to be able to actually have a record to be evaluated against.
Speaker 2
And given that the technology is open source, I think we're going to see some really interesting applications in terms of how it's used. We can't predict, I think, at this point how far the technology will be used in order to solve these kinds of problems that we're talking about here today. I think what Melody just described, this idea of on-chain truth, on-chain, the probability of something on-chain which cannot then be manipulated perhaps will change behavior in and of itself in ways that we haven't yet discovered. As Melody said, if you can't delete the tweet, maybe you'll be more thoughtful about what you write. It's possible. We
Speaker 1
can only look right.
Speaker 2
You would hope. Yeah. You would hope. I'm not convinced of anything. We're optimistic. I said I was a cynic and a skeptic, but I'm also optimistic about, hopefully, about humanity that we can all be better. And again, I'll go back to my skeptical, cynical side. What anonymity has enabled on the Internet is that people can say anything anytime, anywhere about anyone in any way. It's almost like we've unfettered an individual's responsibility to the world because you can do it with a veil, right, a cloak of privacy. People don't know who you are and so you can do anything you want. And there should be a social contract where you can't just say anything you want at any time in any way that's provably untrue. I think what blockchain will enable ultimately is perhaps that maybe a resurrection of a social contract where maybe you can prove that someone said something that was real or true or can be proved that it wasn't real or true. And my hope is that if that's the case, then those who are trusted in the world will be more thoughtful about what they say and what they do because it has such significant impact on all of us, right? We are a global community and something said on one side of the world impacts something that happens on the other side of the world or something and said in my community amongst my small group can impact others within my small group. So I'm hopeful that's new technology and through maybe a resurrection of a social contract that can be delivered through the technology that we're delivering, maybe we can make the world a better place. And ultimately that's my hope.
Speaker 3
Yeah, amazing.

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