CortexLabs: AI on Blockchain

“Whether we are based on carbon or on silicon makes no fundamental difference; we should each be treated with appropriate respect.”

There is no better opening statement than to quote Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, the great mind that gave us 2001 — A Space Odyssey. It all started with a general fantasy of extraterrestrial life. Only to find out that reality is sometimes stranger than fiction. It looks like the human conquest of a better earth has led us down the path of Artificial Intelligence.

What is AI(Artificial Intelligence)?

Artificial Intelligence or AI is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. These processes include learning (the acquisition of information and rules for using the information), reasoning (using the rules to reach approximate or definite conclusions), and self-correction. Particular applications of AI include expert systems, speech recognition and machine vision.

Computing brought an answer of its own, with machines constantly surpassing us in many tasks. I personally recall the historic “Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov” first chess game on February 10, 1996. The heartless machine defeated one of the greatest minds alive in a game that deeply relies on intuition, mental strength, personality, and strategy — typically human traits. Yet the answer is loud and clear: humans ought to choose their battles.

A few years down the path, AI markets are beating all records of growth. Expected to expand to $10.5 Trillion by 2020 (Statista — Revenues from the artificial intelligence (AI) market worldwide), AI is disrupting most aspects of life on earth. It’s upgrading commerce, healthcare, transportation and even criminology. It’s not a contender in a chess game anymore. It’s an ally of silicon and steel with a soul anchored in algorithms and big data for blood.

WHAT ARE THE USES FOR AI?

AI is ubiquitous today, used to recommend what you should buy next online, to understand what you say to virtual assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, to recognise who and what is in a photo, to spot spam, or detect credit card fraud.

What we know?

Existing blockchain contracts can only perform simple smart contract computations, which cannot satisfy the application of real-world AI. The blockchain addresses the transmission and accounting of decentralized value networks. Bitcoin uses a SHA256 Proof of Work (PoW) for consensus on the computational contribution, with each block divided into three parts, namely:

The hash value of the last block serves as the block header of the current block;
Pending transactions (t1, t2,· · ·,tn) within the time window T will be hashed into block coinbase; and
Including miner’s address, which is normally the address of mining pool, the X, as the input of hash functions, will be dispatched by pool server to each miner, who will complete certain computations. The goal is to find H(X, nonce)

The whole mining process can be summarized as:

SHA256(SHA256(version + prev_hash + merkle_root + ntime + nbits + nonce)) < TARRGET

In the process of optimizing the objective function, various numerical methods are often used to iteratively gradient descent to find the global optimal solution. Large-scale distributed learning often adopts ASGD (asynchronous stochastic gradient descent) to optimize the results. Sometimes, for particular problems, the training can only obtain a sub-optimal solution at a certain distance from the global optimum according to a distribution. Due to the innate central tendency in machine learning training, a centralized large cluster has an unparalleled advantage over a loosely coupled decentralized cluster. The Project Company is committed to building a cluster off the chain for training and thus optimizing the on-chain model.

What is Cortexlabs ?

CortexLabs, a new AI specific startup from China, a decentralized AI platform built on the blockchain. It is bringing together some of the sharpest minds in the field of virtual machine building to create an artificial neural network that could potentially disrupt the future of commerce as we know it. The group intends to offer a platform that will allow users to write and execute machine-learning programs within the Cortex network.

It is built on a new public chain called Cortex. The chain includes AI algorithms that support smart contracts, which means anyone can use Cortex to add AI to their smart contracts.

What does CortexLabs do?

Cortex’s main mission is to provide the best in class machine learning models on the blockchain, and users can infer using smart contracts on the Cortex blockchain. The Cortex goal also includes implementing a machine learning platform that allows users to post tasks on the platform, submit models, make inferences by calling intelligent contracts, and create their own AI DApps (Artificial Intelligence Decentralized Applications).

How Does Cortex Work?

Placing artificial intelligence systems on the blockchain isn’t a straightforward process. However, Cortex will solve this problem by allowing machine learning researchers around the world to upload well-trained corresponding data models to the storage layer of the Cortex public chain.

Other users who need these AI models can make inferences using the models, then pay the person who developed those models.

At each inference, a full node synchronizes the model and the data from the storage tier to the local site. Making an inference using Cortex’s unique virtual machine, or CVM, will synchronize the results to the whole network and then return the result.

Every time a user initiates a transaction on the Cortex, opens a smart contract, or performs an intelligence inference, the user will need to pay a certain number of “Endorphin” tokens. Endorphin is the pricing unit for transactions on Cortex. However, the platform will have two tokens, including Endorphins and Cortex Coins (CTXC).

The overall goal of Cortex is to provide state-of-the-art machine learning models on the blockchain where users can infer using smart contracts. Cortex also seeks to create a machine learning platform where users can post tasks on the platform or submit artificial intelligence-based decentralized apps.

Cortex Features
Cortex’s core features include:

Smart AI Contracts: Cortex allows users to write machine learning programs on the blockchain, then submit interactions that are dependent upon other contracts.

Cortex Virtual Machine: Cortex has its own virtual machine called the Cortex Virtual Machine, or CVM. The CVM instruction set is fully Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible and supports inference instructions.

Cortex Inference Consensus: When a user initiates a transaction to a contract, the full node needs to execute the code of the smart contract. Cortex smart contracts differ from ordinary smart contracts because Cortex’s “intelligence contracts” can be equipped with inference instructions, and then all nodes need to agree on the result of this inference. This creates consensus.

Model Submission Framework: Cortex also provides a submission interface for training off-chain, including submissions for virtual machines that interpret instructions for models. This creates a bridge between computing power providers and algorithm providers, allowing for trading and collaboration between participants in the Cortex ecosystem.

Cortex Intelligence Inference Framework: Machine learning researchers around the world can upload well-trained corresponding data models to Cortex’s storage layer. Then, users who need these AI models can make inferences using models, then pay the providers.

Cortex Conclusion
Cortex aims to place advanced artificial intelligence systems on the blockchain. The company recently completed a private investment round during its token sale for CTXC tokens in February/March 2018. The next step is to roll out the Cortex public chain.

Key features of the platform include its smart AI contracts and its Cortex Virtual Machine, both of which allow for advanced AI-based smart contract programming.

Excited to Learn More About the Project

Website:http://www.cortexlabs.ai/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/CTXCBlockchain

Telegram:https://t.me/CortexBlockchain

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/CTXCBlockchain/

PUBLISHED BY

NEERAJ PODDAR

Address : 0x65587ce30e145EDa20a882d712A70179046DC9Fc