AI and the Decentralized Web: Web3 and Metaverse Outlook
In a session at the Data Science Innovators Conference 2023, Intel Chief Data Scientist Dr. Melvin Greer described how web3 infrastructure and the metaverse could move the web from consumption to creation. He urged AI practitioners to start experimenting with blockchain, NFTs and cryptocurrencies.
By The AI Enterprise Magazine Team4 min read
Key takeaways
- From consumption to creation. Greer said web3 shifts the web toward creators who own and monetize their own data.
- Three enabling technologies. A distributed ledger, digital ownership through NFTs and digital compensation through cryptocurrency must mature together.
- Security moves to the network. Authentication, authorization and record-keeping shift away from central authorities, with AI supporting data management and search.
- Early enterprise use cases. He cited Hyundai onboarding, KPMG meetings, Nikeland on Roblox and Dolce & Gabbana digital fashion.
- Experiment now. Greer said it was the time for AI practitioners to begin experimenting.
At the Data Science Innovators Conference 2023, Dr. Melvin Greer, Chief Data Scientist and Fellow at Intel, told data and AI practitioners that the web is shifting from a model built on consumption to one built on creators, and that AI will shape the shift. His session, "AI and the Rise of the Decentralized Web," covered web3 infrastructure, the metaverse and the corporate use cases he saw emerging at the time.
Greer said he wanted practitioners to think about how AI, web3 technologies and the metaverse are "really changing the game." He also reminded the audience that the technologies were early, and that his views reflected where they stood in 2023.
How did the web evolve from web 1 to web 3?
Greer described web 1 as a global library: a single, indexed database that people could read from. Web 2, he said, added publishing. Users began creating information, and companies such as Facebook and Google monetized the combined data, with trade-offs for users. Convenience won out over privacy, he said, and the result is the age of targeted advertising.
Web3 flips that arrangement. "This idea of consumption gives way to creation," Greer said, with individuals able to create data in a persistent digital environment and monetize it themselves.
AI is already tied to web 2, he argued, because it depends on cloud-scale data. He cited a statistic that 90 percent of the data in that database was created in the previous two years, and said that volume is one reason AI became possible.
What technologies make a distributed web work?
Greer said the distributed web depends on three technologies that are maturing at different rates:
- A distributed ledger for security, including the move he described from public to private blockchains
- Digital ownership of assets, through non-fungible tokens
- Digital compensation, through cryptocurrencies that let creators get paid
As they mature, he said, web 2 approaches to consumption give way to decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, focused on creators.
What does a decentralized web change for privacy and security?
By removing intermediaries, Greer said, a distributed web moves authentication, authorization and security mechanisms away from central authorities. He described data storage shifting from server to network, a permissionless and interoperable semantic web, and an extension of the zero trust model to secure networks and ownership.
AI, he added, supports automated data management, data governance and intelligent search across that environment.
Greer also raised the idea of surveillance capitalism, which he described as the claiming of private human experience as free raw material for behavioral data. He said conversational AI, including ChatGPT, which had been released roughly 100 days earlier, takes part in that ingestion. A distributed web could let creators claim their experience instead, he said.
What is the metaverse, and who is using it?
Greer defined the metaverse as the application space that sits on top of web3 infrastructure: a persistent digital environment created by the convergence of enhanced physical and digital reality. It needs AI alongside AR and VR headsets, IoT, 5G and spatial and sensor technologies, he said, and those technologies need guardrails and policies.
He cited Gartner's forecast, as he presented it, that within a few years a quarter of people would spend at least an hour a day in the metaverse for work, shopping, education, social media or entertainment.
Greer walked through several use cases from that period:
- Nikeland on Roblox, which introduces young creators to digital ownership and compensation
- Hyundai, where new employees onboard in the metaverse and use avatars to learn company policies
- KPMG, which he said holds senior staff meetings in a persistent environment and feeds the material back to the real world
- Dolce & Gabbana, where a creator's digital item that reaches a sales threshold can be made as a physical product under a compensation deal
- A Notorious B.I.G. web3 implementation, run with the late musician's family, where fans can buy digital posters and physical music not available online
What should AI practitioners do now?
Greer's message was one of experimentation. "AI and web3 and the metaverse are here and real," he said, and "now is the time for AI practitioners to begin experimenting with these technologies."
He asked practitioners to help mature blockchain, NFTs and cryptocurrencies so that they are easy to consume for metaverse implementations. Business leaders, he noted, were already evaluating how much to invest as web 2 capabilities give way to web 3.
Hear more from the data and AI community in 2027
AI Connect's free webinars put practitioners and enterprise leaders in live conversation throughout the year, with 24 sessions on the 2027 schedule across four series. For in-person discussion, COLLIDE 2027 takes place Wednesday, October 13, 2027, at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center in Atlanta. Details are at COLLIDE.
Frequently asked questions
What is the decentralized web?
Greer described it as web3, an infrastructure where creators control and monetize their data using a distributed ledger, NFTs for ownership and cryptocurrency for payment, without relying on central intermediaries.
What is the metaverse according to Greer?
He called it the application space on top of web3 infrastructure: a persistent digital environment created by the convergence of enhanced physical and digital reality, enabled by AI, AR and VR, IoT, 5G and sensors.
Which companies did Greer cite as metaverse examples?
He cited Nikeland on Roblox, Hyundai employee onboarding, KPMG staff meetings, Dolce & Gabbana digital fashion and a Notorious B.I.G. web3 implementation.
How does AI relate to web3?
Greer said AI depends on the data created in web 2 and also supports automated data management, governance and intelligent search in a distributed web.
This article is based on remarks by Melvin Greer, PhD, Chief Data Scientist and Fellow, Intel at Data Science Innovators Conference 2023 on April 12, 2023. More coverage: More AI Connect Events.
Filed under: AI Use Cases & Applications, Data & AI Infrastructure, AI Governance & Trust
