Written by: Biteye
The highly anticipated AI project Sahara AI has officially launched its first phase testnet - the data service platform, screening more than 10,000 early contributors from 780,000 applicants, making the whitelist competition extremely fierce. Why has Sahara AI been able to secure a total of $43 million in funding led by Polychain, Binance Labs, and Pantera Capital? Today, let's see what makes Sahara AI different.
1. What is the mission of Sahara AI?
Sahara AI is a decentralized AI blockchain platform that aims to transform the development, deployment, and monetization of AI assets (including AI models, datasets, intelligent agents, etc.) through its pioneering AI asset concept and proprietary infrastructure. Whether professional developers, entrepreneurs, or ordinary AI enthusiasts, anyone can easily build or deploy personalized AI products on the Sahara AI platform and gain real benefits by contributing data, developing models, or deploying AI assets.
This unique design not only lowers the entry barrier for AI but also co-builds a more democratized and fair AI collaborative ecosystem, allowing every participant to share in the industry's growth dividends.
In short, Sahara AI is a public blockchain for 'AI development' and 'AI data/model assetization', allowing users to co-create infrastructure and gain real value through data labeling from day one.
2. Why is Sahara AI important?
Traditionally, opportunities to influence AI development were limited to developers. However, with Sahara AI, anyone can participate and directly impact the AI ecosystem, helping to build a more equitable and user-centered next generation of AI.
As AI technology advances, the complexity of its data requirements is also increasing. Tasks that once involved tagging objects or simple classifications have evolved into nuanced processes, such as sentiment annotation, multi-modal data alignment, and organizing specific domain datasets. These tasks require careful consideration, expertise, and precision to ensure high-quality outcomes. The Sahara AI data service platform aims to tackle these challenges by leveraging a globally diverse and decentralized labeling machine. By contributing knowledge, users will help lay the foundation for a fairer and more user-centered AI ecosystem while also being rewarded.
Developers can access trusted models and datasets through Sahara AI, annotate and optimize datasets to accelerate development speed and ensure high-quality data input.
3. Team members
The core team of Sahara AI consists of seasoned experts from the AI and Web3 industries, with past experiences including Stanford University, the University of Southern California, UC Berkeley, AI2, Microsoft, Binance, Stability AI, Google, Protocol Labs, and Avalanche. Team members have integrated their rich cross-domain experiences into the design and development of Sahara AI, establishing a solid technical and strategic foundation for the platform.
The founding team includes:
Sean Ren (@xiangrenNLP): AI professor at the University of Southern California and chairman of the Viterbi Center, with a strong academic background and experience in AI technology research.
Tyler Zhou (@tz_sahara): Former investment director at Binance Labs, with profound understanding and insights into blockchain ecosystems and Web3 investments.
4. Partners
Sahara AI has not only received support from institutional investors but also guidance and support from leading figures in the AI industry and academia, including Motherson Group Vice Chairman Laksh Vaaman Sehgal, Anthropic scientist Rohan Taori (developer of the Claude large language model), Nous Research co-founder Teknium, and Together AI CEO Vipul Prakash.
Midjourney founding member Elvis Zhang.
5. Funding situation
This year, $43 million in funding led by Pantera Capital, Binance Labs, and Polychain Capital has been secured, including corporate investments from Samsung and Thailand's Kasikorn Bank.
6. Participation methods
Sahara currently distributes Sahara Points (SP) as rewards for testnet tasks. The mainnet is expected to launch in Q3 2025, allowing ample time to accumulate points.
Step 1: Join the waiting list
Season 1 is now online, and users who have obtained the whitelist can start tasks. Those without a whitelist can register immediately to apply for the whitelist.
https://hi.saharalabs.ai/get-started
Step 2: Choose a task
After obtaining the whitelist, enter the platform at https://app.saharalabs.ai
Choose tasks that align with your interests and expertise, exploring various data tasks across creator economies, games, science, trade, and more.
Step 3: Apply for a task
Each task list provides a comprehensive overview, including a clear description of the work involved, the rewards offered, and the estimated level of difficulty. Some tasks require participation in a brief qualification exam based on specific tasks to confirm that data providers have the corresponding expertise, ensuring that all platform contributors deliver work that meets the highest standards. Each task exam has only one opportunity; if failed, no retake is allowed. This reflects the platform's high standard requirements for data quality. It is evident that the Sahara team is genuinely controlling the quality of data, rather than just chasing trends or flooding with ineffective data. Currently, over 35 tech innovation companies and research institutions are using Sahara AI, including Microsoft, Amazon, MIT, Motherson Group, and Snapchat.
Step 4: Contribute knowledge
Tag, annotate, or review data. User contributions will directly enhance the quality and reliability of the dataset, helping to build smarter AI systems. For example, when I was working on the Defi Influencers task, I filled in the Twitter accounts, recommendations, and representative tweets of the influencers I considered outstanding. If the influencers I recommended were the same as others, then I would share the rewards with them. The platform incentivizes users to provide unique data in this way.
Step 5: Earn Sahara Points and achievements
Earn Sahara Points for completing each task, with high-quality contributions eligible for additional rewards. Points and achievements will be automatically calculated using the platform's advanced quality assurance mechanism.
Strategy:
Provide accurate, high-quality answers in tasks to earn base + reward points. Compete for a place in the top 1,000 on the leaderboard by earning as much XP as possible, as these users will receive special benefits. Participants with multiple low-quality contributions will gradually be banned from participation to prevent affecting the contributions of other high-quality users. The minimum accuracy threshold for submitted tasks is 15%. If a user is banned from submitting for 4 out of the last 10 tasks, they will be suspended for 7 days. If suspended 3 times within 3 months, the system will permanently ban the user from submitting tasks.
Sign in for 31 consecutive days to earn an NFT to record your contributions after the first season ends.
6. Summary
The value of AI data labeling lies in providing accurate training data, which is key to enhancing the accuracy and performance of AI models. Precise labeling helps models better understand and process information, leading to superior performance in real-world applications. This is the core of Sahara AI. The project team states that with the continuous optimization of Sahara AI, more products for public participation will be launched in the future.
As can be seen, this is a valuable and community-friendly AI project that deserves attention.