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(Kitco News) – Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been all the rage over the past couple of months as the rise of ChatGPT has led to a resurgence of interest in the potential applications of AI and sparked a rally for AI-related cryptocurrency projects like SingularityNET (AGIX) and Fetch.ai (FET).
The topic of artificial intelligence was also addressed in the seventh e-Trading Edit report from JPMorgan, an annual assessment of sentiment across different asset classes that included responses from 835 institutional traders in 60 global markets.
More than half of the institutional traders who took part in the survey said that artificial intelligence and machine learning would be the most influential technology to shape trading methods over the next three years. While blockchain had been prominently featured in previous surveys, this one cited AI four times more than blockchain and distributed ledger technology.
And it wasn’t just blockchain technology that was superceded, as AI outperformed every other major technology category included in the survey, with 53% of respondents predicting that AI/machine learning technology would be the most influential in shaping the future of trading. API integration ranked second (14%), followed by blockchain/distributed ledger technology (12%). Mobile trading applications received 7% of the vote.
For comparison, AI and blockchain technology tied for second in the 2022 e-Trading Edit results, with 25% of respondents predicting them to be the key emerging technologies while mobile trading applications came in first with 29%.
The struggles that the crypto ecosystem faces in 2022 are likely to play a major role in the most recent survey’s findings, as the collapse of FTX and a host of other high-profile bankruptcies turned many off the sector. Seventy-two percent of respondents to JPMorgan’s survey said they “have no plans to trade crypto [or] digital coins” in 2023.
Meanwhile, the release of ChatGPT spurred a renewed interest in AI, with the bot reportedly reaching 100 million monthly unique users in January, just two months after its launch. This rapid adoption has made ChatGPT the fastest-growing consumer application in history, according to a UBS study. In contrast, it took TikTok roughly nine months after its global launch to reach 100 million users, while Instagram required 2-1/2 years.
The surge in interest in AI turned out to be a boon for AI-related blockchain projects, with AGIX gaining 940% since Jan. 1, while the FET has increased by 425%. Other notable gainers in the AI sector of the crypto market include The Graph (GRT) and Ocean Protocol (OCEAN), which have increased 235% and 204% respectively so far in 2023.
AGIX/USD vs. FET/USD vs. OCEAN/USD vs. GRT/USD 1-day chart. Source: TradingView
Many crypto projects now find themselves in a race to integrate ChatGPT into their business models and platforms, while crypto enthusiasts have discovered a variety of useful applications, including for use in research, creating trading bots, or providing coding assistance to developers.
Tron launches $100 million AI development fund
One example of a ChatGPT-inspired development in the crypto space is Wednesday’s announcement from the TRON (TRX) ecosystem that it has established a $100 million Artificial Intelligence Development Fund.
The new fund was established by TRON DAO – a community-governed decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and dApps. The fund will focus on four main areas: AI Service Payment Platform, AI Infused Oracles, AI Informed Investment Management Services, and AI Generated Content, the press release said.
“The hope of the initiative is that developers are inspired to use AI in current as well as future applications built on the TRON blockchain, both in the back end and front end of development, and that they apply for grants from the TRON Artificial Intelligence Development Fund to help them do so,” TRON DAO said.
This past weekend, Tron founder Justin Sun posted on Twitter threads announcing a framework to integrate AI systems like ChatGPT and OpenAI into a blockchain-based payment system. “By combining AI technology with the security and efficiency of blockchain, AI developers can maximize their potential… TRON blockchain can provide the best infrastructure support for OpenAI, ChatGPT, and all AI developers by leveraging its robust blockchain payment system,” Sun wrote.
“This framework will realize a decentralized payment system that is secure, trustworthy, tamper-proof, anti-censorship, and capable of AI, helping people build a new decentralized, intelligent financial ecosystem,” he added. “By combining AI technology with the security and efficiency of blockchain, AI developers can maximize their potential.”
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