Original author: Anderson Sima, Executive Editor of Foresight News
If there can be only one keyword for 2025, I would choose "AI Agent."
On January 6, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that he is confident in having mastered the method to build AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and predicts that the first AI agents may "join the workforce" in 2025, significantly changing corporate output.
The author believes this is not an alarmist statement, but a new chapter in AI progress.
The emergence and transcendence of AI Agents
In the past six months, with the rapid development of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology, AI Agents have gradually become a hot sector in the cryptocurrency field. This autonomous entity developed based on AI technology can simulate human cognitive and decision-making processes, exhibiting a high degree of intelligence and adaptability in perception, analysis, and action. Although current AI Agents are still far from humans in terms of comprehensive intelligence, the birth of AI Agents will redefine the relationship between humans and technology.
Currently, large models (such as ChatGPT) perform excellently in language processing, content generation, and other aspects, but their applications still have significant limitations. The core design of large models is to generate the most probable optimal solution based on training with massive amounts of data, which means they are more like powerful "language engines" capable of answering questions and providing suggestions, but cannot truly make active decisions and execute them. For example, in complex enterprise management or emergency response scenarios, large models often cannot go beyond the role of "suggestion provider", while AI Agents can quickly formulate and execute plans based on dynamic environments and preset goals.
Taking healthcare as an example, large models can recommend potential treatment suggestions based on the symptoms described by users. However, in sudden emergency situations like cardiac arrest, large models cannot judge the patient's condition based on sensor data and immediately control medical devices to perform CPR like an AI Agent can.
In contrast, the capabilities of AI Agents go beyond the scope of existing large models, no longer limited to "data processing", but capable of completing a full closed loop from "perception" to "action". For instance, in the field of autonomous driving, AI Agents can analyze road conditions in real-time, integrate traffic rules and vehicle status, decide the best driving route, and dynamically adjust driving strategies; in the financial sector, AI Agents can track global market information in real-time and dynamically adjust investment portfolios to maximize returns.
AI Agent Code of Conduct: Smart Contracts
When AI Agents truly enter the above scenarios, they should be called "AI Beings", a new species created by "Human Beings", with computing power providing the energy for their actions. So the question arises, how should the behavioral guidelines of such powerful agents be defined? My answer is "smart contracts."
Smart contracts, as vehicles for cryptocurrency, are essentially contracts expressed in code form. They achieve the following characteristics through blockchain technology:
Decentralization: Breaking free from the constraints of traditional institutions.
Immutable: Ensuring the authenticity of transactions and records.
Traceable: Providing transparent information flow for all participants.
Unlike traditional contracts, the execution of smart contracts does not require intermediaries and relies solely on the rules preset in the code. This not only improves efficiency but also greatly reduces the possibility of human intervention and potential loss of control.
If computing power is the blood of AI, then smart contracts will be the soul of AI.
AI Agents need to adhere to established rules and ethical guidelines when executing tasks. Smart contracts in cryptocurrency provide a natural solution for this. For example, in a decentralized logistics network, AI Agents can automatically schedule transportation and settle costs based on blockchain records, ensuring transparency in resource allocation and transactions.
Imagine a decentralized education platform centered on cryptocurrency. AI Agents can help students develop personalized learning plans and intelligently allocate cryptocurrency rewards based on learning outcomes, encouraging continuous learning. Students' grades, learning processes, and reward records are all recorded on the blockchain, avoiding biases and human interference present in traditional education systems.
Another major attraction of the combination of AI Agent and Crypto lies in its perfect integration with game theory.
Game theory is essentially the science of decision-making, studying the strategic choices and equilibria of parties in interest games. The cryptocurrency ecosystem is the best stage for the application of game theory. The interactions among miners, investors, and developers are essentially a multi-party game, while blockchain protocols guide the behavior of all parties through mechanism design. For example, in the Bitcoin network, miners compete for computing power to earn rewards, while the protocol rules ensure the security and decentralization of the network.
The combination of AI Agents and Crypto can further enhance decision-making capabilities and collaborative efficiency. For example, in future smart cities, AI Agents may be widely applied in resource allocation, traffic management, and other fields. Through cryptocurrency incentive mechanisms and game models, AI Agents can find optimal solutions between different goals:
In energy management, AI Agents can negotiate the priorities of energy use and cost distribution to ensure supply and demand balance.
In international trade, AI Agents can complete real-time settlements based on cryptocurrencies and smart contracts, avoiding delays and high costs of traditional banking systems.
Assuming a complex AI Agent system "Jarvis" emerges in the future. As a "digital assistant", it can coordinate multi-layered cooperation between individuals, businesses, and governments. The operation of "Jarvis" is based on a transparent and dynamically adjusted cryptocurrency system, where users can earn rewards by contributing data or services, and "Jarvis" can also use cryptocurrency to purchase necessary resources, thus achieving a closed-loop economy.
The rise of AI Agents and the popularity of cryptocurrencies will jointly drive the arrival of a new era of collaboration:
Collaboration between humans and AI: AI Agents become intelligent assistants for individuals and businesses, taking on tedious tasks and allowing humans to focus on creative work.
Collaboration between people: Cryptocurrency ensures fairness and transparency in cooperation, incentivizing more people to participate in collaboration.
Collaboration between AIs: AI Agents use cryptocurrency for resource sharing and knowledge exchange, achieving more efficient collaboration.
Potential risks of AI Agent + Crypto
On one hand, while the combination of cryptocurrency and AI Agents is theoretically feasible, the technical implementation still faces many challenges. For example:
Security issues: Although blockchain technology boasts decentralization and immutability, the existence of smart contract vulnerabilities can be maliciously exploited, leading to financial losses or system failures.
Scalability issues: Current mainstream blockchains (such as Ethereum) have limited performance in handling large-scale transactions and executing smart contracts, which may become a bottleneck for the widespread application of AI Agents.
On the other hand, once the behavioral rules of AI Agents are solidified through cryptocurrency smart contracts, they may lack flexibility and struggle to address complex ethical issues. For example:
Responsibility attribution: If an AI Agent causes losses due to the execution of a smart contract, should the responsibility fall on the developer of the AI Agent, the designer of the smart contract, or the user?
Privacy issues: AI Agents need to process large amounts of data in real time, and how this data is stored, used, and shared may lead to serious privacy controversies.
In addition, the introduction of cryptocurrency may exacerbate the differentiation of the economic system. After the combination of AI Agents and cryptocurrency, the party with a technological advantage may further consolidate its dominant position in economic activities. Those individuals and small to medium-sized enterprises excluded from the wave of AI technology and cryptocurrency may be marginalized due to their inability to bear the technological costs, thus exacerbating social inequality.
The combination of AI Agents and cryptocurrency is a prototype of a technological revolution. Its potential lies in enhancing efficiency and fairness through regulated and automated methods, driving changes in collaboration models. However, this technological combination is not a panacea, and its complexity and risks require us to remain cautious in technological development and social application. On one hand, we should actively explore its value; on the other hand, we must also be wary of the inequalities and uncertainties that technology may bring.
