Bitcoin billionaire Barry Silbert talks about his next big bet—on ‘decentralized AI’

Barry Silbert is venturing into a new frontier with his latest project, Yuma, a subsidiary aiming to challenge tech giants like Google and OpenAI in the field of artificial intelligence. The twist is that Yuma will focus on decentralized AI, distributing the technology through a network of autonomous contributors rather than relying on large tech corporations to provide the service. Silbert compares this decentralized approach to the early days of the internet, when the open web overtook centralized, "walled garden" platforms controlled by a few firms.

Yuma’s foundation lies in the blockchain-based Bittensor network, which uses a token (TAO) to incentivize contributions to its decentralized AI services. While still in its early stages, Bittensor has garnered support from investors, including Silbert and venture capitalist Olaf Carlson-Wee. Despite its connection to cryptocurrency, Yuma is aiming to minimize the crypto aspect in its branding, focusing instead on building a decentralized intelligence network.

TAO tokens, like Bitcoin, are mined using electricity and are capped at 21 million, creating a scarce asset. However, there are challenges, particularly in competing with AI giants like Google and OpenAI, which have substantial resources to develop the computing power necessary for advanced AI. Still, Silbert is optimistic that developers will overcome the complexities of decentralized systems and build user-friendly interfaces that hide the technology’s complexity. Some experts believe AI agents could solve the user interface issues by handling decentralized AI tasks more intuitively.

While decentralized AI faces technical and logistical hurdles, particularly around the infrastructure needed to process large-scale AI tasks, the success of Bitcoin as a decentralized project suggests that there may be a path forward for this ambitious new vision.