At its conference in Bangkok, Thailand, NEAR Protocol unveiled plans to create the largest open-source AI model with 1.4 trillion parameters.
The New AI Model
The project will be driven by crowdsourced research and contributions from participants worldwide. Thousands of participants can engage through the newly established NEAR AI Research Hub, beginning with training a 500 million-parameter model.
Monetization and Data Protection
A key aspect of the project is monetization through token sales to fund model training. NEAR Protocol uses Encrypted Trusted Execution Environments to protect participant data. Co-founder Illia Polosukhin highlighted raising the necessary $160 million, noting that tokenholders would benefit from the model's inference outputs.
AI Assistant and the Future
Additionally, an AI Assistant was unveiled, showcasing the capabilities of NEAR’s AI infrastructure. Polosukhin used it to create a memecoin and a website in seconds. Future versions will enable flight booking, food ordering, and interactions with Web2 services via blockchain. The chain abstraction technology allows asset swaps across blockchains with a single transaction.
NEAR Protocol aims to integrate decentralized technology with traditional web services, offering innovative solutions in the AI market.
