"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis User-Owned AI: On-Chain Training, Inference, and Agents, with NEAR's Illia Polosukhin
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Sep 13, 2025 Illia Polosukhin, co-author of the influential 'Attention Is All You Need' paper and founder of NEAR, shares his bold vision for user-owned, privacy-focused AI. He discusses NEAR’s cutting-edge blockchain infrastructure that prioritizes decentralized model training and privacy through NVIDIA’s confidential computing. The conversation highlights the importance of trust mechanisms, economic security in AI, and the potential for blockchain to empower users in AI governance. Illia calls for community engagement in creating transparent practices for a future where AI truly belongs to everyone.
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Why AI Must Be User-Owned
- Illia frames user-owned AI as private, verifiable models and data that belong to people, not companies.
- He argues a movement (not a single company) plus economic incentives is required to build it.
Near Began To Solve Payments For AI Data Work
- Illia recounts Near starting as an AI project that became a blockchain to solve global payments for remote data workers.
- They built a scalable, easy-to-use chain because existing blockchains couldn't handle microtransactions and UX needs.
How Proof‑Of‑Stake Provides Trust
- Finality in proof-of-stake gives verifiable state assuming two-thirds honest stake, enabling trust without a central authority.
- Near's validator set is permissionless and includes companies, exchanges, universities, and individuals who stake tokens.