Harnessing Blockchain for Responsible AI & Empowering Users in a New Economic Paradigm
Blockchain: The Bedrock of Trustworthy AI
Blockchain technology, with its hallmark features of transparency, immutability, and decentralization, offers a robust foundation for developing AI systems that are not only efficient but also accountable and transparent. These characteristics are particularly pertinent in an era where the integrity of data and the processes governing AI models are under intense scrutiny.
Transparency and Immutability: Ensuring Data Integrity and Trust
The immutable ledger system inherent to blockchain ensures that once data is recorded, it cannot be altered without the consensus of all parties involved. In the realm of AI, the immutable ledger system of blockchain plays a pivotal role in ensuring data integrity, a factor of paramount importance especially in critical sectors like healthcare. Here, we delve deeper into how blockchain’s immutable ledger system underpins AI’s reliability and trustworthiness, using the healthcare sector as a prime example. We’ll also have a look at the high-level technical setup required to have this solution implemented.
How Blockchain’s Immutable Ledger System Supports AI in Healthcare
In healthcare, AI’s potential to revolutionize diagnostics and treatment is hampered by challenges related to data integrity, privacy, and secure collaboration. The critical need for a solution arises from the requirement to manage sensitive patient data responsibly, ensuring it remains unaltered and private, while also being accessible for AI analysis. The blockchain-based system directly addresses these issues by providing a secure, immutable ledger for data recording, controlled access via smart contracts, and verifiable data integrity for AI applications, ultimately fostering trust and compliance in healthcare technologies.
A Solution at Glance:
- Data Recording and Encryption: Initially, patient data, including medical records, diagnostic results, and treatment histories, are recorded on the blockchain. This data is encrypted to ensure privacy, with access strictly controlled through cryptographic keys. The immutability of blockchain ensures that once this information is stored, it cannot be altered or deleted, preserving the integrity of medical data.
- Smart Contracts for Data Access: Smart contracts are deployed on the blockchain to manage access to patient data. These contracts contain rules specifying who can access the data, under what conditions, and for what purposes. For instance, a smart contract might allow only the patient’s primary care physician and specific specialists to view their full medical history, while researchers could be granted access to anonymized datasets for epidemiological studies.
- Secure Data Sharing and Collaboration: When a healthcare provider or researcher requires access to patient data, they must submit a request through the blockchain network. This request activates the relevant smart contract, which verifies the requester’s credentials and permissions. If the request complies with the smart contract’s rules, access is granted, otherwise, it is denied. This mechanism ensures that patient data is shared securely and only with authorized parties, facilitating collaboration while safeguarding privacy.
- Data Integrity Verification: AI algorithms, when applied to this securely shared data, can generate insights, predictions, and recommendations. For example, an AI model could analyze patient data to predict disease outbreaks or personalize treatment plans. The integrity of the data used by these AI models is assured by the blockchain, as any attempt to tamper with the data would be detectable due to the ledger’s immutability. This ensures that AI-driven healthcare solutions are based on accurate and reliable data.
- Audit Trails for Compliance and Trust: Blockchain creates a comprehensive and tamper-proof audit trail of all data access and transactions. This transparency is crucial for regulatory compliance, patient trust, and for resolving any disputes that may arise regarding data use or access. It also enables the tracking of AI decisions back to the data on which they were based, facilitating accountability and continuous improvement of AI models.
High-Level Solution Design : Let’s see at a high level what it will take to have this solution setup
The following is a high-level solution design for implementing a blockchain-based system to support AI in healthcare:
- Blockchain Network: A permissioned blockchain network is established, with participation from hospitals, clinics, research institutions, and other stakeholders. This network hosts patient data, smart contracts for data access, and the ledger of transactions.
- Data Storage Nodes: Encrypted patient data is stored in a distributed manner across nodes in the network. These nodes enforce the blockchain’s security and privacy protocols, ensuring data is accessible only to authorized individuals.
- Smart Contracts: Deployed on the blockchain, these contracts define the logic for data access, sharing permissions, and other rules governing the interaction with patient data.
- AI Analysis Layer: This layer interfaces with the blockchain, requesting access to data through smart contracts and analyzing the data for various purposes, such as diagnostic support, treatment optimization, and predictive analytics.
- User Interface (UI): A UI is developed for various user roles, including healthcare providers, patients, and researchers. Through this UI, users can interact with the blockchain, request data access, view AI analytics results, and manage consent and privacy settings.
- Compliance and Audit Module: This module monitors and records all transactions on the blockchain, ensuring compliance with healthcare regulations and providing tools for auditing and reporting.
This design leverages blockchain’s strengths to create a secure, transparent, and immutable foundation for AI applications in healthcare, ensuring data integrity, enhancing collaboration, and fostering trust among all stakeholders.
Addressing AI’s Ethical Quandaries
The integration of blockchain into AI ecosystems addresses pivotal concerns such as privacy, data ownership, and the ethical use of AI.
Privacy and Data Ownership: Empowering Users
In the intricate landscape of modern technology, the integration of blockchain into AI ecosystems marks a pivotal advancement in addressing the ethical quandaries of privacy, data ownership, and the responsible use of AI. The synergy between blockchain and AI not only fortifies the integrity and transparency of data but also empowers individuals with greater control over their information. Let’s delve into a detailed exploration of this integration within the AdTech or MarTech world, showcasing a step-by-step example that highlights the mutual enhancement of AI and blockchain.
Addressing Ethical Concerns in AdTech/MarTech with Blockchain and AI
In the AdTech and MarTech industries, personalization is key to campaign effectiveness. However, this personalization often comes at the cost of privacy and data ownership, with consumer data frequently being utilized without explicit consent or adequate transparency. This scenario poses significant ethical concerns, including potential breaches of privacy and the misuse of personal data.
Blockchain and AI Integration Solution:
A consent-based advertising platform that leverages blockchain to securely manage consumer data and AI to optimize ad targeting and content personalization, all while adhering to stringent privacy and ethical standards.
Solution at a glance :
- Consumer Data Collection with Consent via Blockchain: Step 1: Consumers opt into the platform by granting explicit consent for their data to be used for personalized advertising. This consent transaction is recorded on the blockchain, providing an immutable record of consent. Step 2: Consumer preferences, interests, and engagement data are encrypted and stored on the blockchain. Each consumer is given a unique blockchain-based digital identity, ensuring that their data is securely linked to their consent.
- Decentralized Data Storage for Privacy: Data is stored in a decentralized manner across the blockchain network. This approach ensures that no single entity has complete control over consumer data, significantly enhancing privacy and security.
- AI-Driven Data Analysis and Ad Personalization: Step 1: AI algorithms access anonymized consumer data to analyse behaviours, preferences, and engagement patterns. This analysis is performed in a manner that respects the privacy and ownership of the data, with AI only accessing data for which explicit consent has been recorded on the blockchain. Step 2: Based on this analysis, AI dynamically personalizes advertising content for each consumer, optimizing ad relevance and engagement while ensuring compliance with privacy and ethical standards.
- Smart Contracts for Ethical Use and Compensation: Smart contracts automatically enforce the terms of data use, ensuring that consumer data is only used in ways that they have consented to. Additionally, these contracts can facilitate microtransactions, compensating consumers for the use of their data in advertising campaigns.
- Audit Trails for Compliance and Transparency: Blockchain provides a verifiable and auditable trail of all transactions, including data access, consent records, and the use of AI in personalization. This transparency allows consumers to verify how their data is being used and ensures compliance with data protection regulations.
High-Level Solution Design : Let’s see at a high level what it will take to have this solution setup
- Blockchain Network: Serves as the backbone of the system, managing consent records, consumer data, and smart contracts.
- Decentralized Data Storage: Ensures that consumer data is stored securely and privately across the network, enhancing data protection.
- AI Personalization Engine: Analyses anonymized consumer data to personalize advertising content, operating within the ethical boundaries set by blockchain-recorded consents.
- Smart Contract Layer: Enforces data usage policies, consent agreements, and facilitates microtransactions for data compensation.
- User Interface (UI): Allows consumers to manage their consent preferences, view how their data is being used, and receive compensation for their participation.
This detailed example illustrates how the integration of blockchain and AI in the AdTech or MarTech world can address critical ethical concerns. Blockchain ensures privacy, data ownership, and transparency, laying a trustworthy foundation. Concurrently, AI enhances the value and effectiveness of advertising through intelligent personalization, operating within the ethical frameworks enforced by blockchain technology. Together, they pave the way for a more ethical, transparent, and consumer-centric advertising ecosystem.
Monetization of Data: Empowering Users in a New Economic Paradigm
The evolution of blockchain technology has ushered in a revolutionary model for personal data monetization, fundamentally altering the dynamics of value exchange between individuals and entities that consume data, including advertisers, researchers, and AI developers. At the heart of this transformation is the empowerment of individuals, who gain unprecedented control over their own data. Through blockchain’s transparent and secure framework, people are not just passive sources of data but active participants in the data economy, engaging in microtransactions that reward them for their contributions. This shift not only acknowledges the intrinsic value of personal data but also democratizes access to it, fostering a more equitable and balanced data marketplace. Let’s explore this marketplace solution at a very high level.
Decentralized Data Marketplace for Personalized Fitness Recommendations
In the health and fitness industry, personalized recommendations can significantly enhance user experience and outcomes. However, creating effective AI-driven personalized fitness programs requires access to a wide range of health and activity data. Here, we explore how individuals can monetize their health and fitness data through a blockchain-based marketplace, empowering them while contributing to the development of sophisticated AI models.
Solution at a glance:
- User Consent and Data Upload: Users opt into the platform by granting explicit consent for specific sets of their health and fitness data to be used for AI model training. This consent is recorded on the blockchain, ensuring transparency and immutability. Users upload their encrypted health data (e.g., workout logs, nutritional intake, health metrics) to the platform. This data is anonymized to protect privacy before it’s made available on the marketplace.
- Blockchain-Based Data Marketplace: The platform operates a decentralized marketplace where anonymized datasets can be listed for purchase. Each dataset is associated with metadata describing its contents, source (in an anonymized format), and the consent parameters set by the user. AI developers and companies can browse the marketplace and purchase access to datasets that are relevant for training their AI models. Transactions are conducted using cryptocurrency, and smart contracts automate the payment and data access process.
- Microtransactions for Data Compensation: When a dataset is purchased, the user who provided the data receives compensation in the form of cryptocurrency. This microtransaction is facilitated by a smart contract, ensuring that payment is directly linked to the data’s usage. The smart contract also ensures that a portion of the transaction fee is allocated for the maintenance of the platform and contributing to a fund that supports data privacy and security initiatives.
- AI Model Development and Feedback Loop: Purchased datasets are used by AI developers to train and refine personalized fitness recommendation models. The diversity and richness of the data available in the marketplace contribute to the development of more accurate and personalized AI solutions. Feedback on the utility of the purchased data can be provided back to the platform, enhancing the dataset’s value and reputation over time. This feedback mechanism encourages users to contribute high-quality data, fostering a virtuous cycle of improvement and compensation.
High-Level Solution Design : Let’s see at a high level what it will take to have this solution setup
- Blockchain Infrastructure: Serves as the backbone for the data marketplace, managing user consents, data transactions, and microtransactions for data compensation.
- Data Anonymization and Encryption Module: Ensures that all user data uploaded to the platform is anonymized and encrypted, preserving privacy while making it usable for AI development.
- Smart Contract Framework: Automates the processes of data listing, purchasing, access control, and compensation, ensuring that all transactions are transparent and secure.
- Cryptocurrency Wallet Integration: Allows users to receive compensation for their data and facilitates payments by purchasers, integrating seamlessly with the marketplace’s transaction system.
- AI Development Toolkit: Provides tools and APIs for AI developers to access and utilize purchased data for training models, ensuring compatibility and ease of use.
This detailed exploration highlights how blockchain technology can empower individuals by enabling them to monetize their personal data through microtransactions in a secure, transparent, and ethical manner. By participating in a decentralized data marketplace, users not only gain control over their data but also contribute to the advancement of AI technologies, benefiting from the innovations their data helps create.
Conclusion
The symbiosis between blockchain and AI heralds a new era of technological innovation where AI operates under principles of accountability, transparency, and ethical responsibility. By leveraging blockchain’s unique attributes, the AI landscape can evolve into one where trust is inherent, data integrity is uncompromised, and users are empowered. The path forward involves continued research, development, and the ethical application of these technologies to realize their full potential in advancing responsible AI.
This article is written by Smit Srivastava, Director of Product Management.Smit Srivastava
Product Management | AdTech | MarTech | Program Management | Data Science | E-Commerce | Creative Analysis
Smit has firmly established himself as a visionary leader and a catalyst for transformative innovation in the dynamic sphere of technology and media industry. His expertise in AdTech and MarTech consulting have been instrumental in crafting products that handle billions of events per day.
VeraViews – Alkimi Join Forces to Revolutionize Digital Advertising
VeraViews and Alkimi Exchanges, two industry leaders in the blockchain-based advertising space, have announced a new collaborative effort. VeraViews is an open ledger platform that uses the patented “Proof of View” (PoV) fraud identification technology. Furthermore, it is an extension of the Verasity system. Alkimi Exchange, however, is a decentralized ad exchange marketplace. The two assert that their partnership has the power to reinvent what is possible in digital advertising, especially in the fight against inefficiencies and a lack of transparency in the supply chain network. The partnership will bring fresh audiences and publications to Alkimi Exchange marketers as well as improve the revenue potential for publishers on the VeraViews platform.
We are thrilled to announce our latest partnership with @verasitytech!
"Publishers using the VeraViews adstack can now access demand and monetise through Alkimi Exchange, and Alkimi Exchange’s advertising partners can access new publishers and audiences through VeraViews."… https://t.co/tMEe06oxDi
— Alkimi Exchange (@AlkimiExchange) August 22, 2023
First-of-its-kind integration
Ad exchanges are computerized marketplaces where marketers may place real-time bids and buy publisher’s ad impressions, facilitating more effective and tailored digital advertising transactions. Ad exchanges make it possible for a vibrant and competitive market to buy and sell online advertising inventory, which is necessary for VeraViews’ publishing partners to successfully monetize their websites. For years, participants in the digital advertising industry have demanded more open procedures. Despite tracking capabilities and sophisticated ad networks, advertisers rarely know where their ads are placed. This raises questions about ROI and brand safety.
The collaboration between the two blockchain-based advertising giants plans to address these long-standing problems. It will be done through the integration of VeraView’s “Proof of View” (PoV) technology into Alkimi Exchange’s advertising platform. By utilizing VeraView’s ad stack, Alkimi publishers can reach new certified audiences across the VeraView network. Additionally, VeraViews has access to fresh demand monetization via the network of advertising partners of Alkimi Exchange. Alkimi Exchange will be able to learn where Proof of View is being used throughout its supply chain to block bots and illegitimate traffic.
Broader Impact on Blockchain-based Advertising
The agreement might represent a first step in clearing up some of the most vexing supply chain issues facing the advertising sector. In reality, a survey by the Guardian said that a projected 25 percent of all online ad views were generated by bots; however, other estimates put the overall proportion of fraudulent traffic significantly higher. VeraViews has long advocated for technological solutions that address fraudulent advertising and other concerns. Moreover, it has been a pioneer in using technology to combat enduring problems in digital advertising. The company’s software stack is already used by a number of significant view hosting and publishing platforms.
If the VeraViews and Alkimio Exchange incorporation succeeds in reducing fraud and increasing transparency, it may serve as a template for more widespread use in the booming blockchain industry. This might subsequently transform a sector of the economy that is anticipated to surpass $1 trillion annually in the near future.
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Here’s what they said
Ben Putley, CEO & Co-Founder of Alkimi, stated:
We at Alkimi Exchange and VeraViews are excited to announce our partnership, bridging the gap between advertising technology and cryptocurrency. By uniting our strengths, we’re pioneering an innovative synergy that will offer unparalleled efficiency, transparency, and security in the ad tech industry. Our collaboration symbolises not just a mutual understanding of our industry’s future, but also a shared commitment to drive sustainable growth, forge new pathways, and redefine the boundaries of what’s possible. Together, we are charting a course towards a more integrated, responsive, and intelligent digital advertising landscape.
David Murray, Demand Director at VeraViews, said:
The decentralized advertising ecosystem is still nascent, and we’re delighted that VeraViews and Alkimi Exchange have found ways to leverage our innovative technology solutions in synergy, working together to achieve our common goal of bringing trust and transparency to the programmatic advertising supply chain.
About VeraViews
VeraViews is a patented Proof of View (PoV) fraud detection technology-based open ledger advertising platform. It is the most effective and auditable solution for avoiding ad fraud since it offers clear invalid traffic (IVT) tracking for publishers and auditable campaign data for brands. VeraViews ensures that real people see the ads. It helps increase campaign ROI for marketers and shortens the time taken for publishers to get payment.
About Alkimi Exchange
Alkimi Exchange is a decentralized alternative to the antiquated, ineffective traditional programmatic ad exchanges. Its goal is to re-establish value between advertisers, publishers, and users. They offer the fastest, infinitely scalable solution with zero fraud, low transaction costs, and total end-to-end transparency. It is possible thanks to Alkimi exchange, a bespoke layer 2-scaling system on the Ethereum network designed exclusively for advertising.
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StarzPlay Unveils Free Fantasy Football Game for Fans in MENA
StarzPlay Sports has announced the release of StarzPlay Fantasy Sports, an unprecedented free-to-play Web3 sports game in the MENA region. The SERIE A 2023/24 season will mark the first time the football prediction game is played. It will debut in 19 nations in the Middle East and North Africa region and will only be accessible through StarzPlay Sports.
By integrating Web 3.0 and blockchain technologies, StarzPlay Fantasy Sports represents a crucial turning point in the fantasy sports industry. As the SVOD platform continues to set the standard for providing its audience with distinctive and interesting content, StarzPlay Sports is establishing itself as a versatile entertainment hotspot. Thousands of hours of high-quality video, including the best Western, Arabic, and Turkish shows, anime, and live sports are currently available on the site.
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Blockchain technology-powered game
Watching live games on StarzPlay Sports has an entirely novel experience thanks to the game. StarzPlay Fantasy Sports enables viewers to fully experience the excitement of live football matches by allowing them to anticipate scores in real-time for SERIE A matches and other regional leagues. The goal will be to increase user interaction with the matches. This would involve predicting results like scores and possession percentages and identifying the player who might score the opening goal inside the interactive arenas using intuitive in-game tools. Players will require their strategic acumen and draw from their football understanding for a chance to earn prizes, compete against friends, and move up weekly, monthly, and all-time leaderboards,
Players who make accurate predictions can win a variety of rewards. The in-game money STARZ$ is one of them. Despite being free to play, players can buy, sell, and exhibit NFTs in a real-time interactive marketplace using money. This will give them the tools they need to build a customized team and improve their predicted performance. Additionally, the currency may be exchanged for tickets to SERIE A games, football merchandise, platform subscription vouchers, and, the cherry on top, meet-and-greet events with football legends beginning with the upcoming 2024 Supercoppa Italiana finals in Riyadh. Players will also receive prizes from third-party sponsors. In essence, it will open up a new channel for businesses and advertisers to interact with site visitors.
The HTML5 game will be run via the Skale Network and organized in Amazon AWS in a serverless environment. This will make it possible to serve customers during busy periods and offer a consistent, excellent experience during matches.
Here’s what they said
Alessandro Masaro, Chief Strategy Officer at StarzPlay said,
StarzPlay Fantasy Sports is the first-of-its-kind blockchain service in the region which will give customers a new dimension to engage with sports while competing to win incredible prizes. Our goal is to make StarzPlay a hub for sports entertainment and provide users and rights holders with more opportunities to interact and build stronger and more valuable relationships. We believe this is the first step of a larger plan which will see StarzPlay Fantasy Sports expand into other leagues and sports in the near future.
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