The confluence of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology is promising unprecedented advancements, particularly in the realm of smart contracts. At the forefront of this innovation is the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP), developed by Dfinity. The recent announcement by Dom Williams, the founder of ICP, underscores a significant leap forward in AI smart contract development, setting the stage for a new era of digital operations.
Williams recently shared an exciting update about the Internet Computer, revealing substantial improvements in the performance of AI-driven smart contracts. According to his statement, the team at Dfinity has managed to accelerate deterministic floating point instructions by an impressive tenfold. This enhancement is critical as it directly contributes to the efficiency and speed at which smart contracts can operate, particularly those that are AI-intensive.
This breakthrough was demonstrated in a recent video, showcasing an image classification task on the blockchain now performing more than three times faster than before. Previously, such tasks would take between 10 to 12 blocks to reach consensus, but thanks to the new optimizations, they now only require 3 to 4 blocks. This improvement not only speeds up processes but also significantly reduces the gas or cycles costs associated with AI inference, making it more accessible and cost-effective.
The technical enhancements stem from extensive low-level work, including critical commits to the public Wasmtime virtual machine implementation of WebAssembly. This foundational development is essential for running sophisticated Large Language Models (LLMs) as smart contracts on the blockchain.
Looking ahead, Williams shared insights into future optimizations. The integration of SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) instructions into the smart contract execution environment is on the horizon. This advancement will allow for multiple floating point calculations to be performed simultaneously with a single instruction, further boosting the processing power available to smart contracts.
Moreover, an ambitious migration is planned from 32-bit Wasm to 64-bit Wasm within the ICP smart contract environment. This change will significantly expand the capacity for AI model weights that can be loaded into contract memory, essentially removing the upper limits and accommodating the needs of more complex AI models.
Williams also hinted at longer-term developments, including the provision of new APIs that will enable canister smart contract code to export AI computations for accelerated processing on GPUs. This move, however, will require extensive collaborative efforts within the community to achieve deterministic computation on hardware and to establish a new public specification for blockchain nodes equipped with GPUs.
These technological strides are not just about enhancing the capability of blockchain technology but are also aimed at making AI models more secure and reliable. By running as smart contracts, AI models can avoid potential security breaches, operate uninterruptedly, maintain transparency, and function autonomously where necessary, such as in KYC verification or EVM smart contract certification.
The vision extends even further into the future, where interactions with the blockchain could mirror conversations with a digital assistant, capable of reasoning and providing insights on demand. This scenario places on-chain AI at the very heart of Web3, with the Internet Computer’s unique chain key technology facilitating trustless integrations with traditional blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, and NEAR.
As Williams enthusiastically invites the community and stakeholders to join in these pioneering efforts, he also calls for participation in the upcoming Global R&D session, which will delve deeper into the specifics of the floating point optimizations. This collaborative approach not only underscores the open nature of the project but also reinforces the communal spirit that drives innovation in the blockchain space.
The path laid out by the Internet Computer Protocol and its team promises a transformative impact on how blockchain technology is perceived and utilized. By harnessing the power of AI in a decentralized environment, ICP is not just progressing towards becoming the “everything computer” but is also setting the standard for future blockchain functionalities.
