According to PANews, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the internet landscape, challenging the traditional economic model where a few companies, primarily Google, drive demand while creators supply content. AI tools now generate and summarize content, reducing the need for users to visit content providers' websites, thus disrupting this balance. Additionally, AI-driven deepfakes and bots are eroding trust in the online world, as large tech companies with vast data and computational resources continue to invest in AI, further closing off the internet.
Technological progress is inevitable, and while government regulation could help, it often slows innovation. Instead, empowering individuals to control their digital lives is crucial. Blockchain technology offers a solution by enforcing ownership and creating a decentralized network that verifies transactions, ensuring rules and records remain unchanged without consensus. Smart contracts automate and enforce ownership, providing a system of transparency, security, and trust, allowing users full control over their digital lives. For creators, this means they can dictate how others, including AI systems, use their work.
Blockchain also enforces identity ownership, allowing individuals to carry their identity online without relying on third parties. This technology can distinguish real users from bots and imposters, paving the way for 'proof of humanity' on the internet by 2025. Blockchain will create tamper-proof records of original digital content, acting as a bulwark against deepfakes. Unique digital fingerprints can be provided and stored for videos, photos, or recordings, with any alterations easily detectable. Blockchain can also store metadata and verification proofs from trusted sources, further ensuring content authenticity.
By 2025, blockchain will help realize the internet's original ideals, fostering a more creative, open, and diverse network. Currently, users depend on a few internet giants heavily invested in AI, who advocate for regulations to block smaller competitors. Previously open websites and applications have introduced paywalls, restricted APIs, deleted archives, edited past content without permission, and added intrusive ads. Blockchain alternatives will offer more choices, open-source innovation, and community-controlled options, championing the open internet. Cryptocurrencies will begin to shift power from large tech companies back to users.